The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) disclosed on Friday that it has injected $287.89million into the currency market to meet requests in four industries for dollars, extending efforts to boost liquidity and alleviate shortages.

The four industries targeted were agriculture, airlines, petroleum and raw materials, the CBN said in a statement.

Reuters quoted the country’s apex bank as saying that it would continue to intervene in order to drive growth in the economy and guarantee stability in the currency market.

The dollar sale came on the back of the sharp drop in the value of the naira from 361/dollar last week Friday to 364/dollar on Friday.

Confirming the figures, the Bank’s Acting Director, Corporate Communications Department, Isaac Okorafor, noted that the releases were targeted at sustaining liquidity in the market as well as boosting production and trade.

Okorafor reiterated the Bank’s commitment to ensuring liquidity in the inter-bank sector of the market, adding that it would continue to intervene in order to drive growth in the economy and guarantee stability in the market.

It will be recalled that the CBN on Monday intervened in the inter-bank Foreign Exchange Market to the tune of $210 million, comprising of $100 million for the wholesale segment and $55 million each for the Small and Medium Enterprises and invisibles segment.

Although the naira maintained its steady rate against major currencies around the globe – exchanging for N360/$1 in the BDC segment of the market on Friday – there are growing expectations that the objective of the CBN to achieve rates convergence might be met before the end of December 2017 through a combination of factors such as Diaspora repatriation of funds and continued accretion to the country’s reserves.