The local currency continued on a recovery note on Thursday with naira appreciating significantly against the dollar on the strength of recent interventions by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
From N1,536.83 in the previous day, the naira appreciated to N1,382.35/$ at the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM), the first time in a long while that the local currency would record such a massive gain.
This was coming 24 hours after the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) announced it had cleared $7bn valid foreign exchange claims while increasing the country’s forex reserves.
CBN’s Acting Director of Corporate Communications, Hakama Sidi-Ali, announced this in a statement on Wednesday.
The statement partly reads, “The Central Bank of Nigeria has announced that all valid foreign exchange backlogs have now been settled, fulfilling a key pledge of the CBN Governor, Mr Olayemi Cardoso, to process an inherited backlog of $7bn in claims.
“Clearance of the foreign exchange transactions backlog is part of the overall strategy detailed in last month’s Monetary Policy Committee meeting to stabilise the exchange rate and thereby curb imported inflation, spurring confidence in the banking system and the economy.
In Abuja, a cross section of Bureau de Change operators in Wuse who spoke to Daily Trust stated that the dollar has been falling against the Naira since the beginning of the week