The Naira at the official window on Friday closed at 379.00/$1, unchanged against the previous day’s position.
The Investors and Exporters (I&E) forex window opened at N386.69, traded high at N387.00 and eventually closed at N386.13, representing a 0.03% appreciation against the previous day’s closing position. A total of $92.18 million was transacted through the I&E window today.
Two weeks ago, the CBN moved against the abuse of the official FX windows by importers as well as exporters and announced that it would commence weekly sales of dollar to BDCs, at N384.0/$ while directing the BDCs to sell at a cap of N386.0/$.
Notably, rates at the official market and I&E window improved to N379.0/$ and N385.67/$ respectively (previously N381.0/$ and N386.0/$).
Meanwhile, the total value of open FX contracts at the FMDQ Securities Exchange FX futures market declined 5.1% w/w to $12.3bn as the Aug-2020 contract worth $1.6bn matured during the week. However, the soon to mature Sept-2020 instrument (current rate N389.54/$) continued to see more interest and received the highest subscription during the week, worth $274.2mn to bring its total value to $1.5bn. Also, the CBN FX reserves climbed 0.3% w/w to settle at c. $35.7bn.
