Following the lifting of the forex embargo on 43 products by the Central Bank of Nigeria, the Investor & Exporter FX window had a turnover of $53.02 million on Friday.
On Thursday, the CBN relaxed the restrictions preventing importers of 43 products from using its official platform to access foreign exchange.
It made this disclosure in a statement headlined “CBN Restates Commitment to Boost Liquidity in Forex Market,” which was signed by Isa AbdulMumin, Director of Corporate Communications.
According to the announcement, importers of all 43 commodities that had previously been prohibited by the 2015 circular TED/FEM/FPC/GEN/01/010 and its addenda are now permitted to buy foreign currency on the Nigerian foreign exchange market.
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According to data acquired from the FMDQ on Friday, the official trading platform’s turnover remained flat at $53.02 million, down from $60.30 million on Tuesday.
The naira did, however, slightly strengthen as it traded at 764.86/$ as opposed to 766.70/$ on Thursday.
In a report on Friday regarding the lifting of the forex ban, analysts at Cordros Securities stated that, “In our view, while this is a step forward, we think FX liquidity should take precedence to avoid further FX pressures at the official and parallel markets, more so since the FX queue will now be longer at the official market without liquidity.
Possibly, the CBN is using this as a signalling mechanism to divert attention from the parallel market and lessen the pressure on the official market to keep up with the unofficial exchange rate.
The parallel market pricing is therefore anticipated to grow as the importers of these 43 goods switch to the official market, while we believe that FX pressures will rise in the official market in the short future.
