Aftermath Of CBN Hammer: Banks Woo SME Customers For Forex

Following the decision of the management of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to carry out its threat by suspending 14 of the nation’s banks from participating in the weekly SME forex window, some of the banks may have started wooing customers with messages offering forex support.
The banks were on Tuesday, May 2, 2017, barred from the wholesale spot and forward interventions window for not utilizing any portion of the funds allocated to them by the CBN under the SME window since its inception last month.
The SME windows is part of ongoing efforts to stabilising the value of the Naira against major global currencies, while easing problems encountered by Nigerians in all segments of the forex market.

Below is the message sent via electronic mail on Thursday morning by one of the affected banks to its customers:

Need Forex Support for Your Business?
We Can Help with That

Forex Sales: SME Intervention

We are pleased to inform you that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has opened a special window to supply FX of USD20,000 per customer per quarter for the importation of eligible items by small and medium scale enterprises using telegraphic transfers.

This is however subject to the following requirements:
Duly completed form M on the CBN single Window.
Bank Verification Number
Submission of the shipping documents not later than 60 days from the date of the telegraphic Transfer (TT). While the funds will be sold at the rate of N360 per US Dollar, please note that only eligible import items qualify for this funding.

Kindly contact xxxxxxx
for further information.

Thank you

The apex bank’s Acting Director, Corporate Communications, Isaac Okorafor, while reacting to the suspension on Tuesday, May 2, 2017, explained that the CBN management decided to bar banks
Those that escaped the CBN hammer included: Access Bank Plc, Diamond Bank Plc, Fidelity Bank, Heritage Bank, Jaiz Bank, Sterling Bank, Unity Bank and Zenith Bank, warning that the apex bank “would not sit back and allow any form of instability in the interbank forex market through the actions of institutions or individuals.”

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