The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) released its half-year financial market activity report, showing its net sale of $5.78 billion in the foreign exchange (FX) market during the first half of 2023. In contrast, the CBN purchased a total of $655.53 million during this period. This represents a 26.84% decrease compared to the net FX sales of $7.90 billion reported at the end of June 2022.
The CBN’s continuous FX market interventions aim to alleviate demand pressures and maintain exchange rate stability. During this review period, spot transactions decreased compared to the same period in 2022, while transactions in the forward market saw a slight increase.
According to the report, a total of $6.44 billion was sold in the foreign exchange market. This included spot and forward sales, with spot sales accounting for $1.56 billion (24.19% of the total) and forward sales amounting to $4.88 billion (75.81% of the total).
The spot sales included $612.41 million (9.51%) for the inter-bank Secondary Market Intervention Sales (SMIS) window, $455.31 million (7.07%) for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), $441.75 million (6.86%) for invisibles, and $48.00 million (0.75%) at the Investor’ and Exporters’ (I&E) window.
