By Hamisu Muhammad and Chris Agabi
The dollar slipped further to N365 at the street market yesterday just as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) announced reduction for school fees, medical bills and travel allowances from N375 to 360/$1.
The CBN in a statement said it is to sell FX to banks at N357/$1, while banks will sell to their customers at N360/$1 for invisibles (BTA, Medical bills, fees etc).
“The CBN has released the sum of $85 million for sale to Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) at the rate of N 357/$1 for onward sale to retail end-users at not more than N360/$1, for invisibles such as Basic Travel Allowance(BTAs), medicals, school fees, etc,” the statement indicated.
The Bank yesterday, also offered the sum of $100 million to authorized FOREX dealers in the interbank wholesale window to meet the requests of genuine wholesale customers.
CBN’s Acting Director in charge of Corporate Communications, Isaac Okorafor, said the rates in the interbank window for wholesale transactions would still be determined by activities in the interbank market.
Traders in Abuja and Lagos said the market currently is into confusion as they are no specific rate for the forex. According to Ibrahim Shehu, most traders are avoiding buying the dollar even as low as 360 due to the inconsistency of the rates.