In a decisive effort to ease the strain on Nigeria’s foreign exchange market and enhance transparency in pricing, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has conducted a Retail Dutch Auction System (rDAS) sale.
The auction saw $876.26 million sold at an exchange rate of N1,495 per dollar to 26 deserving banks.
This was disclosed in a statement signed by Omolara Duke, Director of the Financial Markets Department. The auction, held on August 6, 2024, aimed to address the high demand for foreign exchange (FX) and ensure fair price discovery.
According to the statement, authorised dealer banks were required to submit comprehensive templates detailing their customers’ outstanding FX demands, supported by Forms A and M.
These submissions were made via email between 9:00 am and 3:00 pm on the auction day, with password-protected templates sent to the CBN.
The passwords were provided after the bid submission deadline, allowing the bids to be opened and reviewed. End users’ accounts were to be credited with the naira equivalent of their bids by August 7, 2024, with the settlement for successful bids scheduled for August 8, 2024.
