Following increased portfolio flows into the country, cumulative transactions on the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) Investors’ and Exporters’ (I&E) foreign exchange window have risen to $18.36 billion. The chief executive of Financial Derivatives Company Limited, Mr. Bismarck Rewane revealed this in a presentation at the monthly Lagos Business School’s breakfast session for November. The surge in activities at the window has been attributed to offshore investor interest in treasury bills and the primary market auctions (PMA) by the CBN, with the resulting inflows leading to a convergence between the parallel market exchange rate and the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEX) rate, also known as the I&E Forex window. By the close of business on Friday, the dollar sold at 359 in Abuja and N360 in Lagos on the parallel market while on the NAFEX it sold at N360.57.

The convergence of the exchange rates, according to market sources, has seen a majority of bureau de change operators rejecting dollars offered by the CBN at a rate higher than the NAFEX rate. With the sustained dollar inflow through the I&E window, which has also been buoyed by higher oil prices and improved oil production from Nigeria, market sources said they expect the naira to keep gaining against the dollar in the weeks ahead.