Nigeria’s central bank said it had injected $210 million into the interbank foreign exchange market on Tuesday, as it strives to maintain liquidity and ease dollar shortages in a complicated sector-by-sector approach. The bank said in a statement it had released $100 million earmarked for the wholesale market, $55 million for small businesses and individuals, and $55 million for certain dollar expenses such as school fees and medical bills.
The intervention is “in continuation of the Bank’s commitment to maintain stability in the market as well as enhance production and trade,” the central bank said in the emailed statement Africa’s largest oil producer has been experiencing dollar shortages for at least two years due to low crude prices, which also helped push the country into recession in 2016. Oil sales are the country’s main source of foreign currency. Nigeria emerged from recession in the second quarter of last year as crude prices recovered. (Reuters)
