CBN Plans $240m Forex Sale, Offers $10,000 On Tuesday Only

Directs Banks To Pay Customers Over-The-Counter

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Monday, April 3, 2017, made the sum of $90m available for sale to Bureau De Change (BDC) operators on Tuesday, April 4, 2017, to meet requests for invisibles such as Personal and Business Travel Allowances (PTA and BTA), medical and school fees.
Another $150m is being made available to authorized FOREX dealers in the interbank wholesale auction window, according to Isaac Okoroafor, acting Director in charge of Corporate Communications.
He also announced the apex bank’s decision to sell $10,000 only to low-end forex dealers every Tuesday, rather than the earlier announced twice weekly sale, as part of plans to reduce logistic difficulties.
According to Okorafor, in a bid to further ease customer access to forex, “the CBN has also directed all banks to pay cash over the counter to desiring foreign exchange customers.”
This follows reports that some banks compel their customers to take pre-funded forex denominated cards.
The CBN spokesman expressed optimism that the sum of $150 million offered to authorized forex dealers in the interbank wholesale window to meet the requests of genuine wholesale customers would be fully subscribed at the auction as was the case at the last auction on March 28, 2017.
He urged banks to oblige the genuine requests of customers, while reiterating the CBN’s earlier call on customers to report any uncooperating bank to the CBN through available platforms.
It will be recalled that the CBN in the recent months has made offers and releases to the inter-bank foreign exchange market in its bid to sustain forex rule supply to different categories of users.
Last week, the CBN had debunked claims that there was adequate forex to fund such invincible items, contrary to information that some customers are being frustrated by some banks.
Such banks, Okoroafor said, claim that the CBN is not allocating enough forex to them for expenses.
“This claim is totally untrue,” he stressed, urging customers seeking to buy forex for the above-mentioned purposes to go to their banks for it and that any such customer “not attended to within 24 hours for BTA/PTA, or 48 hours for tuition and medical fees should call 07002255226 or send an email to cpd@cbn.gov.ng, with the name and branch of the non-cooperating bank.”
Okoroafor assured that “all banks have more than enough stock of
forex in their possession for the purpose of meeting genuine customers’ demand for BTA, PTA, tuition and medical fees.
According to him, “indeed, on a weekly basis, the CBN has been selling at least $80m to banks for onward sale to their customers for these invisible items.”
No customer, he said, should buy forex from any bank above the prescribed rate of N360/$1.

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