ABUJA, FEBRUARY 20, 2017 – The central bank of Nigeria said on Monday it would supply dollars immediately to retail clients through commercial lenders who will resell them at a margin of not more than 20 percent above the interbank rate of 305 naira per dollar.
The central bank plans to boost dollar sales for school fee payments and travel abroad as part of efforts to reduce a 40 percent premium paid for dollar on the black market, where retail customers buy their hard currency.
The bank said it would activate the market’s order-book as soon as possible and accelerate currency matching of the trading platform to ensure transparency.
“Given our plan to meet all unfilled orders, and while provision of FX to the manufacturing sector would remain the central bank’s strong priority, we will no longer impose allocation/utilization rules on commercial banks,” the bank said in a statement.
