Naira Bounces Back As Banks Offload Excess Dollars
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The increase in forex sale activities at the official foreign exchange market has led to the rebound of the naira at the parallel market on Thursday.
Several top bank executives confirmed there were huge forex transactions in the banks.
Ahead of the midnight February 1, 2024 deadline given by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to commercial banks to sell all excess foreign exchange holdings, Deposit Money Banks made frantic efforts to offload their surplus dollar stocks.
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It was learnt that the treasury departments of the DMBs spent the entire day battling to sell their excess FX holdings. Officials processed several foreign exchange request forms of their customers as they sold more dollars to them.
As of 6pm on Thursday, bank officials especially those of the treasury departments, were making efforts to meet the new prudential requirements of the regulator.
Amid its fresh moves to stabilise the nation’s volatile exchange rate, the CBN had in a circular released on Wednesday, ordered DMBs to sell their excess dollar stocks latest February 1, 2024.
The CBN also warned lenders against hoarding excess foreign currencies for profit.
According to officials, the central bank believes some commercial banks hold long-term foreign exchange positions to enable them to profit from the volatile movements of exchange rates.
