Leadership (Abuja)
Justus Nduwugwe
18 November 2008
Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has said that foreign exchange offered for sale under the Wholesale Dutch Auction System (WDAS) increased to US$320.00 million from US$140.00 million in the week ended November 14, 2008.
On the other hand, the aggregate demand for foreign exchange by authorised dealers during the week, increased by 355.9 per cent above the level in the previous week to US$1,044.00 million.
The apex Bank said that the increase in demand pressure was due to the quest of importers to buy goods for the Christmas period, coupled with the demand from pilgrims for Hajj.
Consequently, the actual amount of foreign exchange sold by the CBN during the trading week increased by 471.07 per cent, above the level in the preceding week to US$908.00 million.
On the level of participation, the CBN bulletin on the foreign exchange market noted that the average number of participating banks at the WDAS auction increased to 17 from 10 in the previous week. Similarly, the average number of successful banks also increased from 10 to 15.
Furthermore, the apex bank observed that the average exchange rate of the naira remained at N117.74 per US dollar as in the previous week. However, the weighted average exchange rate depreciated marginally by 0.01 per cent from N117.73 per US dollar in the previous week to N117.74 per US dollar. At the Bureau-de-Change (BDC) segment of the market, the naira traded at an average exchange rate of N119.00 per dollar as in the preceding week. Hence, the premium between the official and BDC rates remained at 1.1 per cent.
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