𝗛𝗮𝗹𝗳-𝗕𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗗𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗮𝗿 𝗔𝘂𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗸𝘀 𝗘𝘀𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗶𝗻 𝗡𝗕𝗘’𝘀 𝗕𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗹𝗲 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗙𝗫 𝗦𝗵𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗮𝗴𝗲𝘀

National Bank of Ethiopia will hold a $500 million special foreign exchange auction on January 27, the largest single FX injection since the central bank began auctioning dollars under its post-reform framework.

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Bids will be accepted from commercial banks between 10:00 a.m. and 12:00 noon, with results expected by the end of the day, according to the central bank. The size of the auction far exceeds previous special interventions, which have typically ranged between $50 million and $150 million, and signals a more forceful attempt to relieve persistent dollar shortages in the banking system.

The move follows NBE’s most recent regular biweekly auction on January 20, the 15th since the series began, where the central bank allocated $70 million at a weighted average rate of 154.92 Birr per dollar. Twenty-one banks submitted bids totaling $94.7 million, underscoring sustained unmet demand and a marginal weakening of the birr compared with the January 6 auction, which cleared at 154.87 Birr per dollar.

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Under its Q3 FY2025/26 auction calendar, the central bank had planned to supply $420 million across six regular auctions of $70 million each, sticking to the biweekly $70 million cadence through March 2026 while allowing for adaptive scaling through specials like this one. Since launching the auction mechanism in mid-2024 as part of broader foreign exchange reforms, NBE has injected over $1.2 billion through more than 15 regular auctions, supplemented by roughly $300 million in occasional