Journalism in the service of society

Dollar debts: CBN repays banks next week, naira may rebound

THE Acting Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Folashodun Shonubi, has said the apex bank will repay banks all outstanding forward contract debts in the next one to two weeks.

Although he did not disclose the total amount of the outstanding dollar debts, a report by JPMorgan, a United States-based bank in a recent report put the total amount of forward contract debt owed by the CBN at $6.84bn.

The acting CBN governor who also dismissed the JPMorgan report, however, said the apex bank had been discussing with banks for a while, adding that the forward contract debts would be repaid in one or two weeks.

Shonubi, who spoke in Lagos, said, “There is no outstanding $7bn as claimed by JP Morgan. It was just their opinion that was put on paper, and many people jumped on it.

“In response to questions about the backlogs, the banks have been working with the CBN on various structures to clear them. So, what happens is that at maturity, they make the foreign exchange available to those that need it.

“We are discussing with them so we can structure their own. So, we are working towards clearing them in the next one or two weeks. It is something we have been discussing for a while.”

Comments are closed.

Naija Times