CBN Injects Fresh $210m in Forex Mar

Isaac Okorafor

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Thursday intervened in the interbank sector of the foreign Exchange market, injecting $210 million into the wholesale segment and other sectors of the market.

Figures released by the Bank indicated that the wholesale sector of the market got another injection of $100 million, while the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and invisibles sectors each received $55 million.

The Director, Corporate Communications Department at the CBN, Mr. Isaac Okorafor, said the forex interventions, in continuation of the Bank’s resolve, were aimed at sustaining the high level of stability in the Forex market and continually ease access to the currency by customers in the different sectors.

While lauding actors in various sectors of the forex market for the level of stability, in spite of activities of speculators, Okorafor assured that the CBN was ready to play its interventionist role in the market.

The CBN had in its last interventions earlier in December 2018, injected the sum of $299.82 million and CNY 143.60 million into the Retail Secondary Market Intervention Sales (SMIS).

Meanwhile, one United States Dollar (US$1) exchanged for N360 in the Bureau De Change (BDC) segment of the market yesterday.

Diamond Bank Appoints Babade Acting Chairman

Diamond Bank Plc yesterday notified the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) that following the recent resignation of Mr. Oluseyi Bickersteth as Director/ Chairman

of the Board, the Board of Directors of bank has appointed Mr. Dele Babade as acting Chairman effective December 24, 2018.

Babade holds Bachelors and Master’s degrees in Laws from University of London and was called to both the

Nigerian and English Bar.

He started his career with Midland Montagu London (the predecessor of HSBC Investment Bank) on the Graduate

Training Programme in 1988 and at various times worked in the UK and Greece mainly in Corporate and Merchant

Banking.

He joined Citibank in 1993 and garnered experience from Citibank’s Emerging Markets business focusing on

businesses beyond Africa and became Vice President in charge of all cross border/international deals for Africa in 1996, statement on the NSE website explained.

In 1998, he joined Nomura International in London as a Director for Investment Banking for Africa.

After re-joining Citibank in 2000, he was moved to Nigeria and Ivory Coast in 2001 as Executive Director covering Nigeria and West

Africa and was a board member of Citibank Nigeria from 2001 to 2006.

He also served as Citibank’s Director & Regional

Head Sub-Sahara Africa Corporate Finance & Investment Banking based in South Africa from 2002 to 2006.

He started his own investment advisory firm in 2007 but left briefly to join Ecobank Transnational Inc as Head of Ecobank

Capital from 2010 to 2012 and was also a member of the Group Executive Committee, the top executive body for overall

direction of the Ecobank Group. Since 2012, he has been running his firm focusing on inward cross border transactions

across the African continent.

He currently serves as Chairman of the Africa Risk Capacity Pan African Insurance Company (ARC Ltd) and is also the

Chairman of its Finance and Investment Committee. ARC Ltd is a financial affiliate of the African Risk Capacity, a

specialized agency of the African Union (AU), an initiative designed to improve current responses to climate-related

food security emergencies.

Babade was nominated by First Carlyle Growth V (Carlyle) and his appointment as a Non-Executive Director was

approved by the Central Bank of Nigeria effective April 20, 2017.

Diamond Bank is currently in a business combination deal with Access Bank Plc