Forex: CBN queries banks

By Emma Ujah, Abuja Bureau Chief

Abuja—The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, has denied allegations of irregularities in the foreign exchange, forex, transactions among Deposit Money Banks, DMBs and insisted that process remains transparent.

Reacting to allegations that some banks were using different rates for different forex end-users, in connivance with officials of the apex bank, CBN’s spokesman, Mr, Isaac Okoroafor, in a statement, yesterday, that there was nothing as such.

Okoroafor, said however, that some banks that were discovered to have published inaccurate data were queried but that they explained that it was due to formatting errors which did not affect the true rates.

He said, “Following media reports alleging irregularities in the rates at which foreign exchange was obtained by some individuals and companies from different Deposit Money Banks DMBs, under the new [60:40] foreign exchange policy by the CBN, which prioritises forex sales to manufacturers, agriculture, plant and machinery, critical raw materials, among others, we wish to make the following clarifications:

“The CBN neither allocates foreign exchange nor does it deal directly with bank customers.

“The CBN does not fix forex rates for transactions by individuals or companies; In line with our principle of transparency, we directed DMBs to forward to us evidence of forex sale to end users and to advertise same in national dailies.

“Since the introduction of the new forex Policy in 2016, we have published, monthly, the evidence of sale from DMBs, as received from the banks and without any alteration by us in the spirit of transparency. We have recently observed, however, that some DMBs forwarded inaccurate data, which were erroneously published and gave a wrong impression of disparate rates.

“The DMBs involved in providing inaccurate data have since been issued queries accordingly. Some have returned a response indicating that some of the figures were related to formatting errors, which do not affect the true rates of the affected transactions.

“As the constitutionally authorized industry regulator mandated to manage the forex market, maintain external reserves and to safeguard the international value of the legal tender currency, we wish to state unequivocally that the CBN has a duty to perform and would not indulge in acts capable of discrediting the forex market.

“We therefore, wish to reiterate that the sale of forex under the new policy is most transparent and it is not intended to benefit any individual or corporate body in anyway.”

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