Nigeria’s central bank intervened in a special forex sale on Friday to boost liquidity on the interbank market and strengthen the naira, a dealer at a major bank explained to Reuters.
Two large sales were done at 198.50 naira to the dollar, totalling $40.8 million, Thomson Reuters data showed. Trading on Nigeria’s foreign exchange market was delayed until after 10 a.m. (0900 GMT) on Friday to allow dealers to submit demand for dollars to the central bank.
Nigeria has become an emerging market of interest to a number of FX firms, most of which gain their business via local seminars and introducing brokers in the region. Since the demise of Liberty Reserve, a popular payment method which many retail FX brokerages used in order to facilitate deposits from Nigeria, it has been increasingly more difficult for FX firms to process deposits from Nigeria, however despite such a challenge, which is accompanied by intermittent internet access and risks of money laundering, Africa’s largest financial center of Lagos has attracted some major firms.
One such company is Blackwell Global Nigeria, whose Business Development and Director Jean Raphael Nahas spoke in detail to LeapRate recently about the viability of operating in Nigeria: “Since our expansion into Nigeria, we have experienced a strong potential of growth via IB networks as well. Despite the underlying and cultural differences in the African and Far East markets, our Introducing Broker model has proven to be successful in both continents” said Mr. Nahas.