The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has intervened in the Retail Secondary Market Intervention Sales (SMIS) of the inter-bank Foreign Exchange Market to the tune of 304.4 million dollars.
The Bank’s Acting Director, Corporate Communications Department, Mr Isaac Okorafor, in a statement in Abuja on Friday reiterated that the objective of the CBN remained to boost liquidity, production and trade.
He said that the recent interventions were in favour of interests in the agriculture, airlines, petroleum products, raw materials and machinery sectors.
According to him, the CBN will continue to ensure liquidity in the interbank sector of the market as well as sustain its interventions in order to drive economic growth and guarantee market stability.
Okorafor expressed optimism that the Nigerian economy stood to gain massively from the Bank’s foreign exchange management strategy.
According to him, it can be seen in the accretion to the foreign reserves, which now stands at more than 40 billion dollars.
Meanwhile, the naira exchanged for N361 to a dollar in the Bureau de Change segment of the market on Friday.
Source
NAN
Source
NAN
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has released an emergency mobile phone line for customers denied access to foreign exchange by banks for medical bill and school fees.
CBN also released email address for immediate complaint against any commercial bank that denies a customer access to foreign exchange.
The customers have been advised to either call 07002255226 or send an email to cpd@cbn.gov.ng. The provision is made particularly for customers buying foreign exchange for school fees and medical fees.
“Any customer who is 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,’’ CBN said.
The apex bank said the aggrieved customer should name the bank and branch of the non-cooperating bank.
“Furthermore, no customer should accept to buy forex from any bank at more than the currently prescribed rate of N360/$1” CBN statement added.
CBN debunked claims by some banks that it was not selling enough foreign exchange to them for BTA, PTA, tuition and medical fees.
CBN’s Acting Director, Corporate Communications, Mr. Isaac Okorafor, advised customers to report any defaulting bank as necessary sanctions would be invoked on erring banks.
He said that information reaching the apex bank show that some customers seeking to buy foreign exchange for BTA, PTA, medical and school fees were being frustrated by some banks.
These banks, he said, give false claim that the CBN was not allocating enough foreign exchange to them for such purposes. “All banks have more than enough stock of forex in their possession for the purpose of meeting genuine customers’ demands for BTA, PTA, tuition and medical fees.
“Indeed, on a weekly basis, the CBN has been selling at least $80 million to banks for onward sale to their customers for these invisible items.
“Thus, members of the public seeking to buy forex for the above-mentioned purposes are therefore, advised to go to their banks and obtain their forex,” he said.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has said that the Naira will no longer trade for N375 per Dollar for invisibles (school fees, medical bills, and travel allowances).
The regulator said that it will now be traded for N360 per Dollar as it will sell to the banks for N357 per Dollar. The CBN also warned banks from selling FOREX funds meant for invisibles to Bureau de Change operators.
The announcement was made via CBN’s Twitter handle on Monday.
CBN wrote:
#CBN to sell #FOREX to banks at N357/$1, while banks will sell to their customers at N360/$1 for invisibles (BTA, medicals, fees, etc)
#CBN directs banks to post new rates in the banking halls of their branches immediately.
#CBN examiners to visit banks to ensure the new rates are implemented.
#CBN prohibits banks from selling #FOREX funds meant for invisibles to BDCs
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) yesterday ordered banks to process foreign exchange demand for Personal Travel Allowance (PTA) and Business Travel Allowance (BTA) in all their branches within 24 hours.
The CBN gave this order in a circular to all banks signed by the Director, Financial Markets Developments, Mr. Alvan Ikoku. Titled, “Update to Foreign Exchange Directives”, the circular stated:
“In view of the CBN’s willingness, capability, and determination to meet FX demand in the market, and in order to further increase foreign exchange availability to all end-users and ensure that a fair and verifiable exchange rate operates in the market, all banks are hereby directed as follows:
“Open a teller point for all retail FX transactions, including buying and selling, in all locations in order to ensure access to foreign exchange by their customers and other users, without any hindrance;
“All banks must have an electronic display board in all their branches, showing rates of all trading currencies, and customers must insist on processing FX transactions based on the displayed rates;
“Banks are mandated to process and meet the demand for travel allowances (PTA/BTA) by end-users within 24 hours of such application, as long as the end-users meet basic requirements already outlined in earlier directives; and banks are mandated to process and meet demands for school fees and medical bills within 48 hours of such application.
“Please note that this directive is effective immediately and non-compliance would attract sanctions including but not limited to being barred from all future CBN exchange intervention”.
In another development, the CBN has accused Other Financial Institutions (OFIS), namely microfinance banks, mortgage banks and envelopment financial institutions, of disregarding recommendations of examination reports.
This accusation was contained in letter to all other financial institutions by the Director, Other Financial Institutions Supervision Department, CBN, Mrs. Tokunbo Martins.
The Central Bank of Nigeria on Thursday said that its current intervention in the foreign exchange market was purely to ease the pressure on the naira and had nothing to do with succumbing to blackmail from some quarters.
The Acting Director, Corporate Communications Department, CBN, Mr. Isaac Okoroafor, stated this while reacting to some trending posts in the social media to the effect that the current appreciation of the naira was as a result of the alarm raised about the illegal sale of forex at ridiculous rates to some people.
A Lagos-based businessman and former governorship candidate, Babatunde Gbadamosi, had claimed that the CBN was engaged in racketeering in the allocation of forex, which he alleged, had led to disparity in the allocation of foreign exchange to cronies of the present administration.
Gbadamosi, who had accused the CBN of selling dollars to some people for as low as N3, was later arrested by the Department of State Services and has been in detention for over five days.
But reacting to the development, Okoroafor said that the CBN did not sell dollars directly to individuals and that the figures being cited by Gbadamosi were as a result of formatting errors during the filing of forex returns by Deposit Money Banks to the CBN.
He said the banks involved had been queried and responses obtained from them, adding that the appreciation of the naira was in no way connected to the allegations of Gbadamosi.
Okoroafor stated, “I want to state categorically that there is no relationship whatsoever between the allegations by the so called person that dollar was being sold at 61 kobo and the current appreciation of the naira.
“What led to the appreciation of the naira is that the CBN has done its intelligence work on the market and we came to the realisation that much of what was driving the demand at the Bureau De Change and parallel market was speculation.
“We reasoned that since there is a lot of pressure on the two segments from people seeking to buy foreign currencies for Business Travel Allowance, tuition and medicals that if we successfully address that, the pressure will come down.
“Also, before now, the level of our reserves was not enough to make us comfortable enough to really do the kind of intervention that is required. We decided to do so now because we are a bit more comfortable with our level of reserves.”
The apex bank spokesperson noted that since the new forex policy, the CBN had intervened with over $500m in the market, which had led to naira gaining strength.
He added,
“Let me also state as prove that when we placed $500m in the market, only $370m was taken. That tells you that the real demand is $370m. When we placed $230m in the market, only $221m was taken.
“Anybody who has gone foul of the law, and the security agencies have caught up with him, should go and face his or her case and stop causing confusion among participants in the market.”
Bharti Airtel, owners of Airtel Nigeria, have recorded an “exceptional loss” of N34.5bn ($111.4 m) to Nigeria’s foreign exchange policy. Its consolidated net profit fell by 31 percent, from 21.13 billion rupees ($315.1 million) in 2015 to 14.62 billion rupees ($218 million) in the quarter ended June 30.
With about seven percent of its consolidated earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) coming from Nigeria, Bharti Airtel says it was largely affected by the Nigerian policy.
“During the quarter, Nigerian Naira devalued by 42.1%, net forex losses of Rs 748 Crore on account of this has been classified under exceptional items,” Airtel said in its quarterly result.
“Except for Nigeria, stable currencies in most of the geographies resulted in lower forex and derivative losses of Rs 309 crore compared to Rs 797 crore in the corresponding quarter last year.
“After accounting for exceptional items (net gains of Rs 82 crore), the Consolidated Net Income for the quarter stands at Rs 1,462 crore compared to Rs 2,113 crore in corresponding quarter last year.”
The telecoms giant, which is India’s largest and world’s third largest mobile operator, also reported a sequential growth of 10.85 percent in Q1 net profit, with mobile data revenue going up by 34.1 percent.
During the quarter under review Airtel Nigeria partnered Facebook, the biggest social network in the world, to deliver free basic internet services for Nigerian subscribers.
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