Mr Cardoso said the infractions observed included some entities not having valid import documents, and that in some cases, even entities that did not exist were captured.
The Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) Governor, Olayemi Cardoso, on Monday, said he met about $7 billion forex backlog when he assumed office.
The CBN governor disclosed this while speaking during an interview on Arise Television on Monday.
“We met about $7 billion in unpaid forex when we assumed office,” he said, noting that the CBN was prompted to take a new look at the identified obligations.
The bank thereafter contracted Deloitte consultants to do a forensic on all the obligations as a means of separating valid obligations from others.
“Of course, we are committed to ensuring that we would pay all valid transactions,” he said.
Mr Cardoso stated that the result that came out of the auditing conducted was quite “startling”.
“We discovered that of the $7 billion unpaid foreign exchange, about $2.4 billion had issues which we believed should not have been there,” he said.
Mr Cardoso said the infractions observed included some entities not having valid import documents, and that in some cases, even entities that did not exist were captured.
Beneficiaries and account parties who asked for foreign exchange got more than they asked for, and some who didn’t ask for any also received foreign exchange, Mr Cardoso claimed.
“So there were a whole load of infractions there, which as I said, amounted to $2.4 billion,” he added.
Other Concerns
Asked how the bank is dealing with the infractions noticed, Mr Cardoso said: “Well, we are not paying. If you don’t qualify you are not a validly constituted request.”
Of the validly constituted ones, Mr Cardoso said some requests have been settled for about $2.3 billion, including airlines and different entities.
“We have settled that already added. And then what remains is about $2.2 billion to be settled. I’m confident that shortly we will be able to address those and move,” he said
“As they were identified, we wrote to the authorised dealers to come in and explain what the situation was. Sadly, much of those have not been disputed to satisfaction.”
Background
The CBN has in recent times come under immense pressure following the depreciation in the value of the country’s naira against the United States’ dollar.
This is coming amid the inability of the apex bank to clear foreign exchange backlogs, particularly that of foreign airlines that have struggled to repatriate their profits from the country.
Last week, the naira plummeted to an all-time low against the dollar on several occasions as the demand for forex soared, pushing up the prices of commodities and other services.
Amid efforts to resolve the challenges, the CBN announced that it had completed the payment of all verified claims owed to foreign airlines by injecting an additional $64.44 million into the sector.
The bank said the payment amounted to a total of $136.7 million disbursed to the aviation sector.
On 8 January, the apex bank announced the disbursement of about $61.64 million to the airlines through various banks.
However, in reaction to these moves, the International Air Transport Association (IATA), said approximately $700 million remained blocked with Nigeria’s commercial banks.
