(Bloomberg) --

The Nigerian central bank will pay recipients who use formal channels to get U.S. dollars from abroad, in the latest move by authorities to increase the flow of remittances amid a shortage of hard currency.

Recipients will get 5 naira for every $1 they remit through licensed international money transfer operators and commercial banks, the central bank said in a circular published late on Friday. The program will run from March 8 till May 8.

The West African nation’s currency has been devalued twice since March last year after a sharp drop in oil sales and remittances from workers abroad led to a shortage of dollars. Measures by the central bank to bolster inflows and a rebound in oil prices could reduce pressure on the currency, which last traded at 411 per dollar at the exchange platform for investors and exporters known as Nafex.

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