The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has instructed commercial banks to sell dollars to customers at no more than N360. This directive is to take immediate effect, according to a tweet from the CBN and a directive released by a spokesperson of the CBN, Isaac Okarafor . Acording to Okarafor, all customers requesting forex for their personal and business travel allowances (PTA and BTA), tuition and medical fees, should buy a rate not more than N360 to the dollar. “The CBN will sell to commercial banks at N357 per dollar. Banks are to post the new rates in their banking halls of their branches immediately,” he said.
As a form of monitoring, Okarafor also mentioned that examiners will be sent out to ensure compliance and erring banks will be punished. This is coming on the back of complaints by Bureau de Change operators about the large profit margins that commercial banks are afforded by accessing FX at CBN rates.
This move by the CBN is expected to further push down the rates in the parallel market – where the exchange rate closed at about N390/$1 last week – especially if the CBN can maintain its interventions. This leads towards the exchange rate unification that Governor Emefiele hinted at in recent weeks. As at 20th February, the Naira was selling at about N522/$1 in the parallel market but has risen 38% within a month after the CBN pumped nearly $2.5 billion into the market.
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