As the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) begins to settle matured backlog of forex forwards in banks, there’s a glimmer of hope that confidence will soon return in the Nigerian forex market.
Report came in on Thursday that the apex bank has delivered over 75 percent to 80 percent of outstanding matured FX forwards in banks.
According to the report, only international banks have been settled which include CitiBank, Standard Chartered and Stanbic IBTC.
A source in the CBN who confirmed the development but does not want to be mentioned, said, “I can confirm the backlog in 14 banks have been cleared. Don’t quote me as I don’t have the details yet.”
People with knowledge of the matter also report that banks are claiming backlogs are being cleared by the central bank.
They also indicate airlines are also seeing their backlogs being cleared.
It is unclear where the source of the supply used to clear the backlog is coming from.
However, the government had announced plans to clear forex backlogs with the injection of $10 billion from the securitisation of the dividends of NLNG and the NNPCL deal.
A report from Stanbic IBTC also alluded to the clearing of the forex backlogs.
“Yesterday, the apex bank began clearing the backlog of outstanding Retail SMIS obligations. The total amount cleared is yet to be ascertained.”