Abuja, March 21, 2024 – The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has cleared all valid foreign exchange backlogs.
Hakama Sidi-Ali, the bank’s Acting Director of Corporate Communications, who announced this on Wednesday, said the CBN cleared the backlogs with the payment of $1.5 billion, effectively settling the remaining balance of the FX backlog owed to bank customers
She described the development as a decisive step towards restoring confidence in Nigeria’s economy.
Sidi-Ali said the process underwent meticulous scrutiny by independent auditors from Deloitte Consulting, ensuring that only legitimate claims were honored. Any questionable transactions were promptly referred for further investigation, she said.
“We made clearing the FX backlog a priority to restore credibility and confidence in the Nigerian economy.
“It was important that we go through an independent and credible process that would determine the authenticity of those obligations, and, at this point, I can tell you that we have now cleared all genuine, verifiable transactions.
“This encumbrance to market confidence in the country’s ability to meet its obligations is now totally behind us,”
She said the clearance of the backlog of foreign exchange transactions was a component of the comprehensive strategy outlined in the previous Monetary Policy Committee meeting held last month. (GBN)
