LAGOS, JUNE 29, 2016 – The central Bank of Nigeria and Citibank on Wednesday executed the country’s first naira-settled futures trade against the dollar, market regulator FMDQ OTC Securities Exchange said.
On Monday the central bank introduced an over-the-counter futures market on the currency, to help manage dollar demand, quoting the naira firmer at 279 to the dollar in a month’s time and at 210 naira by April next year.
The rate at which Wednesday’s futures deal was done and the size of the trade was not disclosed.
The bank had last week auctioned $3.5 billion on the futures market to clear a backlog of currency demand after it lifted its 16-month-old peg to allow the naira to trade freely on the interbank market.
It sold $697 million in one-month futures, $1.22 billion in two-month contract and $1.57 billion due in three months, in order to clear a backlog of $4.02 billion of demand.
In the non-deliverable forwards market, the naira rose against the dollar on Wednesday, with the one-month contract quoting the currency at 283, converging almost with the spot market, which traded the naira at 282 at 1217 GMT.
