Following last week’s take-off of its intervention in the sale of foreign exchange in Chinese Yuan (CNY), the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), last week sold CNY69.858 million in the spot and tenured forwards alongside its injection of $340.507 million into the interbank retail Secondary Market Intervention Sales (SMIS). The apex bank had penultimate week asked banks to place bids for the renminbi signaling the consummation of the bilateral currency swap agreement it signed with the People’s Bank of China on April 27. Data released by the CBN showed that the sales of the Chinese Yuan were for the payment of Renminbi denominated Letters of Credit for agriculture as well as raw materials and machinery, while the dollar denominated interventions were only for concerns in the agricultural and raw materials sectors. The CNY was exchanged at N53.35. According to the acting director, Corporate Communications at the CBN, Isaac Okorafor, and the sales in the Chinese Yuan were through a combination of spot and 15-day tenors. He explained that the requests attended to be bids received from authorized dealers, adding that the availability of Renminbi was sure to ease pressure on the Nigerian foreign exchange market. He attributed the relative stability in the foreign exchange market hugely to the continued intervention of the CBN as well as the sustained increase in crude oil prices in the international market. The CBN spokesman further assured that the CBN would remain committed to ensuring that all the sectors continue to enjoy access to the foreign exchange required for the business concerns, whether in United States dollars of Chinese yuan. In its announcement of the flag-off of the sale, the CBN had explained that there would be no predetermined spread on the sale of FX Forwards by authorised dealers to end-users under the Special SMIS-Retail, adding that authorised Dealers would be allowed to earn 50 kobo on the customers’ bids. Source: Leadership