(Ecofin Agency) - The Central Bank of Nigeria plans to start selling foreign exchange to the Bureau de Change (BDCs) market twice a week and boost their liquidity by 20%.

“In line with its pledge to sustain liquidity in the foreign exchange market, the CBN will from Monday, April 3, 2017, commence twice a week FOREX sales to licenced Bureaux de Change in the country. Licenced BDCs are henceforth required to fund their accounts with the CBN on Mondays and Wednesdays while they receive their purchases on Tuesdays and Thursdays,” said Isaac Okorafor, CBN’s acting Director of Corporate Communications, who disclosed this in Abuja.

According to Okorafor, the weekly sale amount was also increased from $8,000 to $10, 000 per bid.

After widespread intervention in the forex market over the past weeks, the CBN on Tuesday reduced forex rates to BDCs from N370 to N360 per dollar. It ordered BDCs to sell to buyers at N362 and Deposit Money banks to sell at N360 to end users.

Anita Fatunji