The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), on Monday reiterated its position that about $2.4 billion out of the claimed backlog of $7 billion forex claims were fictitious.
The Deputy Governor, Corporate Services of the CBN, Mohammed Bello, said this while speaking on Monday at the 2024 Law Week event of the Nigerian Bar Association which was held at the NBA National Secretariat, in Abuja.
According to Bello, upon his assumption of office, there were numerous demands for clearance of outstanding forex obligations.
He added that these necessitated a comprehensive audit of the claims received to determine their genuineness or otherwise.
He said: “Following the completion of the audit, we discovered that about $2.4 billion out of the claimed backlog of $7 billion were fictitious. The bank thus took steps to clear the authentic forex backlog that has aided the stabilisation of the Naira.
“It is imperative to note further that before this settlement, major foreign airlines operating in the country blocked their low inventory seats due to their inability to repatriate trapped FX inflow.
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“It is gratifying to add that the clearing of the FX backlog to airlines had led to the release of cheaper seats to Nigerians, thereby ameliorating the cost of airfares and reducing the demand for FX and as a consequence of the pressure on the naira”.
Bello added that “the resultant effects of some of these measures are that, this month saw the Naira emerge as the best-performing currency globally, which was supported by the bullish sentiments of leading international investment institutions, and the FX market experiencing robust activities with turnover reaching levels not attained in over seven years.”
The CBN Deputy Governor noted that policies and measures that are contractionary were adopted to reduce the cash in circulation with the hope of tackling the rising inflation rate in the country.
He said the issuance of new Guidelines on Bureau de Change and licence revocation of over 4,000 BDCs, among others, was adopted to ensure orderliness in that space.
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