(Ecofin Agency) - Twelve Nigerian companies have taken a total of $101.33 million (30%) out of the $367 million special foreign exchange sales carried out by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on March 2nd, 2017.

The firms include Dangote Sugar Refinery Plc which took up $25.55 million of the sales to import raw sugar, De-United Food Plc bought $9.6 million to import wheat, seasoning materials and packaging materials, and Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) purchased $9.6 million on behalf of MRS Oil Plc to import petroleum products. Others are Total Nigeria Plc ($8.6 million), Honeywell Flour Mills ($8 million), Dangote Cement Plc ($7.5 million), MINL Limited ($6.7 million), Forte Oil ($6 million), Conoil Plc ($5.4 million), Rahamanniya Oil & Gas ($5.4 million), Seven Up Plc ($4.73 million) and Bua Sugar ($4.5 million).

CBN under the new foreign exchange system occasionally conducts Secondary Market Intervention Sale (SMIS) to plug backlogs of matured foreign exchange obligations. The outcome of the SMIS, conducted on March 2nd, showed that the bank sold $367 million to 950 firms via their respective banks.

According to the result, the amount sold by the apex bank was 282% higher than the $95.9 million sold to 567 firms during the previous SMIS conducted on February 28th.

Ever since it announced new measures to boost dollar supply and forestall the declining rate of the naira in the parallel market on Monday, February 20th, 2017, the CBN has injected a total of $2.27 billion in intervention in the forex market 12 times.

Anita Fatunji