After weeks of consultations with stakeholders in the financial sector, the Central Bank of Nigeria on Wednesday finally released the guidelines for the flexible foreign exchange market.
The CBN Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, who announced the policy while briefing journalists at the apex bank’s headquarters in Abuja, explained that interbank trading under the new guideline would begin on Monday.
Giving some of the highlights of the new policy, the governor said based on the new foreign exchange guideline, the market would now have primary and secondary dealers to be appointed by the central bank.
He said the dealership level would be categorised based on the volume of transaction such an institution can handle.
He also said the market would operate as a single market structure through the interbank/autonomous window; while the exchange rate would be purely market-driven using the Thomson-Reuters Order Matching System as well as the Conversational Dealing Book.
The CBN, according to him will also participate in the foreign exchange market through periodic interventions to either buy or sell foreign exchange as the need arises.