The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Olayemi Cardoso, has announced that the Nigerian Government has cleared the outstanding $7 billion foreign exchange (Forex) backlog to various firms after the successful verification exercise by forensic auditors.
Speaking at the launch of Nigeria’s Regulatory Policy Framework, organised by the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council, on Wednesday in Abuja, Cardoso explained that the bank was optimistic that the clearance of the $7bn backlog would ease the bottlenecks associated with the repatriation of funds by businesses, multinationals, and foreign investors.
He said that the outstanding forex clearance took far longer than they earlier anticipated.
“In addressing foreign exchange liquidity constraint, decisive steps have been taken to clear outstanding $7bn forex backlog to ensure that businesses, multinationals, corporations, and foreign investors can repatriate funds seamlessly
‘This initiative has restored confidence among market participants and reinforced Nigeria’s commitment to honouring financial obligations in a timely and efficient manner. Talking about the $7bn backlog, we have cleared the verified claims.
“We also looked at the unverified ones, and I believe that we are at the final stages of separating what qualifies as fully verified, and we will surely be paying out those money that have been verified by the forensic auditors. It is unfortunate, to be honest, that it has taken so long,” the report by Punch newspaper on Thursday quoted Mr. Cardoso as saying.
According to Cardoso, there were a lot of practices that went on that really should never have happened in the first place.
“That said, we are going to ensure that we do what we need to do to strengthen our market and create a better trust in what you investors naturally desire and deserve,” he added.
GIK/APA