Central bank of Nigeria injects $331.4 m into currency market

Nigeria’s central bank said Friday it had injected $331.41 million into the interbank foreign exchange market, continuing its efforts to boost liquidity and alleviate dollar shortages.

The bank said the funds were allocated to companies in the agricultural, airline, petroleum and machinery sectors.

The central bank is “buoyant enough to meet the foreign exchange requests of various customers cut across the different segments of the market”, said its spokesman Isaac Okorafor.

Nigeria, Africa’s largest oil producer, fell into recession in 2016 largely due to low crude prices. Lower oil revenues led to foreign currency shortages because crude sales are the country’s main source of foreign exchange.

It emerged from recession last year as crude prices recovered, but it has maintained a system of multiple exchange rates in an attempt to reduce pressure on the local naira currency.