The Central Bank of Nigeria sold a total of $9.98 billion to authorised foreign exchange dealers in the fourth quarter of 2019.
But sales to I&E window and SME intervention rose above their levels in the preceding quarter by 17.7 per cent and 1.0 per cent to $2.62 billion and $0.43 billion, respectively. “Consequently, the premium between the average inter-bank and BDC rates widened by 0.1 percentage point to 17.1 per cent, relative to the level in the preceding quarter. The premium between the average exchange rates at the Investors and Exporters’ window and the BDC segment also widened by 0.11 percentage point to 0.96 per cent in the review quarter, from 0.85 per cent at the end of the third quarter of 2019.
“Total non-oil export earnings received through the banks during the review period amounted to $0.96 billion, representing a decrease of 37.8 per cent and 12.7 per cent relative to the levels at the end of the preceding quarter and corresponding period of 2018, respectively.