African currencies week ahead: bond flows to help Kenyan shilling, naira seen steady

08 Mar, 2015

Kenya's shilling could strengthen next week buoyed by offshore inflows into a Treasury bond on sale later this month, while the naira could steady as the central bank controls its trade.
Dealers said Nigeria's central bank has fixed the rate at which banks can buy dollars from oil companies at not more than 2 naira spread to its clearing rate.
Finance minister Seth Terkper told Reuters the government would continue to use its Oil Stabilisation Fund as well as petroleum hedging to manage foreign exchange volatility in support of the local cedi currency.
The central bank said it had traded $51.5 million on the interbank foreign exchange market in the past week.
The currency of Africa's second-largest copper producer traded at 6.9850 to the dollar from 6.9600 a week ago. "We could see some tick up in demand for dollars as companies make dividend payments. This could put pressure on the kwacha," one commercial bank trader said.

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