All outstanding forward contract debts owed commercial banks will be paid by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in the next one or two weeks.
Acting Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Folashodun Shonubi, disclosed this at an event on Lagos.
Shonubi who did not disclose the total amount of the outstanding dollar debts, however, dismissed a recent JPMorgan report which had put the total amount of forward contract debt owed by the CBN at $6.84bn.
The acting CBN governor said the apex bank had been discussing with banks for a while, on how the banks can be paid in one or two weeks.
“There is no outstanding $7bn as claimed by JP Morgan. It was just their opinion that was put on paper, and many people jumped on it.
“In response to questions about the backlogs, the banks have been working with the CBN on various structures to clear them. So, what happens is that at maturity, they make the foreign exchange available to those that need it.
“We are discussing with them so we can structure their own. So, we are working towards clearing them in the next one or two weeks. It is something we have been discussing for a while,” Shonubi stated.
He also disclosed that the CBN was probing one Crown Agent, a Bureau De Change operator, for bringing forex into the country illegally and selling it to Nigerians even as he vowed that the regulator would deal with all erring BDC operators in the country.
“For the last few weeks, we have been investigating and quite a few players have been bringing in money and selling at less than the official rate. One of those we have investigated recently is Crown Agent.
“We have reason to believe that, we have been working with international agencies on this. We are looking at those who do not follow through the normal system, send it through them, and sell it to Nigerian companies. They can expect to hear from us shortly. And they will not be the only ones,” he said
Shonubi further stated that the CBN was still intervening in the market to stabilise the forex rate and emphasised its commitment to stabilising exchange rates despite contributing less than 25 per cent of the market volume.
He further disclosed that the CBN’s intervention goes beyond regulatory oversight, noting that it aims to ensure rate stability, an approach, he said, allowed the CBN to effectively manage the flow of foreign exchange and ensure a balanced supply to the financial sector.
“Today, we are still intervening in the market. It is not as if it has affected our ability to make money available in the I&E market. When you look at the volumes, the CBN contributed less than 25 per cent.
“The CBN doesn’t aim to be a regulator player but wants to stabilise the rate. There is so much foreign exchange that people don’t talk about that is being made available that banks are selling to their customers. It doesn’t appear as demand to CBN, but it is significant,” he added.
