By 
Olayemi Cardoso, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), announced that the backlog of foreign exchange (FX) debt in most Nigerian banks has been successfully cleared, leaving only five banks with outstanding FX issues. Speaking during an investor call facilitated by the Nigerian Exchange Group, Cardoso assured that the remaining backlog in these banks would be resolved in the coming days.
Cardoso stated, “Basically, what we have done with those is that we have paid as much as we can to the point where we have cleared the backlog of all the banks save five. All the banks’ genuine and verifiable backlogs have been cleared, save five. We are confident that we will shortly be in a position where the whole issue of forwards would be behind us.”
Expressing consistency in addressing the matter, Cardoso emphasized his commitment to fulfilling promises and stated that the outstanding issues would likely be resolved within the next few days or a week and a half.
Additionally, the CBN Governor shared positive news on foreign portfolio inflows, revealing that Nigeria has attracted $2 billion in foreign portfolio investments since the beginning of the year. This follows the National Bureau of Statistics’ report indicating a total of $3 billion in foreign portfolio inflows for the entire year 2023.
In an earlier interview in February, Cardoso highlighted that a significant portion of the $7 billion forex backlog inherited upon taking office included issues such as non-existing entities, requests lacking import documents, and other infractions. The CBN has been actively addressing these challenges to enhance the transparency and efficiency of the foreign exchange system.
Comments