The Central Bank of Nigeria on Wednesday released the guidelines for the flexible foreign exchange market.

The CBN Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, who announced the policy while briefing journalists at the central 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 value of the naira against other currencies would be market-driven.

To implement the new policy, the governor said the apex bank would on Friday appoint primary and secondary dealers adding that their dealership level would be categorised based on the volume of transaction such an institution can handle.

He said based on the assessment of the CBN, the number of primary dealers would be between eight and ten financial institutions with a minimum transaction volume of $10m.

 

He also said the market  would operate   as   a   single   market structure   through   the   inter-bank/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 would also participate in the foreign exchange market through periodic interventions to either buy or sell foreign exchange as the need arises.