The efforts of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) aimed at ensuring stability in the foreign exchange (Forex) market may have started yielding results as the market is now awash with dollars.

Indications of excessive liquidity in the market emerged on Thursday last week when operators could only pick a little over $39 million out of the $100 million offered for bid by the apex bank.

Market analysts say that with this development, the naira is set to firm up against major currencies like the dollar and pound sterling during this week.

It would be recalled that CBN last week opened a special Forex window for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to enable entrepreneurs import eligible finished and semi-finished items not exceeding $20,000 for an enterprise per quarter.

That was in addition to the special intervention in the Bureau de Change BDC) segment of the foreign exchange market which resulted in each operator accessing $20,000 as against the earlier stipulated $10,000 per week.

According to the CBN spokesman, Mr. Isaac Okorafor, “The special interventions were necessitated by its findings that a large number of SMEs were being crowded out of the Forex space by large firms and also service genuine demand for invincible like tuition fees, medical a and personal/basic travel allowance.”