ABUJA, April 23 (Reuters) – Nigeria’s central financial institution bought $15.83 million to alternate bureaus at a extra beneficial naira charge than the official market, it stated on Tuesday, the second such sale in April and the fourth this yr because it strikes to spice up the provision of international foreign money.

The official market quoted the naira foreign money NGN=D1 at 1,315 per greenback at 1326 GMT, LSEG knowledge confirmed.

The central financial institution bought $10,000 every at 1,021 naira per greenback to 1,583 foreign money alternate operators to satisfy demand for eligible end-user international alternate wants, instructing them to resell at a mark-up no more than 1.5% above the acquisition value.

This technique injects liquidity into the market whereas trying to regulate the naira alternate charge which fell to a document low in February, however is beginning to strengthen.

The naira has surged sharply towards the greenback, each on the official and parallel markets, after the central financial institution raised rates of interest and lifted restrictions on international participation at its fixed-income auctions.

The financial institution has since began a charge tightening cycle and elevated yields on short-term treasury payments to draw international buyers.

Central financial institution Governor Olayemi Cardoso has stated the financial institution doesn’t intend to prop up the foreign money, including that the roughly $2 billion fall in reserves within the final two months had nothing to do with defending the foreign money.

(Reporting by Elisha Bala-Gbogbo; Enhancing by Mark Potter)