CBN directs banks to open forex outlets at major airports

• to provide additional funding for medical, school fees

The Central Bank of Nigeria has directed banks in the country to open Foreign Exchange outlets to sell dollars and other hard currencies at major airports across the country in other to ease the burden on travelers, National Daily has gathered.

The CBN expects such retail transactions to be settled at a rate not exceeding 20 per cent above the interbank market rate.

Releasing the new measures on Monday, CBN’s acting Director of Communication, Isaac Okoroafor said the apex will be providing direct additional funding to banks to meet the needs of Nigerians for Personal and Business Travel, Medical needs, and School fees, effective immediately.

National Daily gathered that henceforth, foreign exchange for medical and schools fees must be made by commercial banks directly to the institution specified by the customer.

Okoroafor explained that the process will be as smooth as possible and that as many customers as possible get the foreign exchange they genuinely demanded for.

Okorafor said that the apex bank had also reduced the tenure of its Forward Sales from the current maximum cycle of 180 days, to not more than 60 days from the date of transaction.

“Given our plan to meet all unfilled orders, and provision of FX to the manufacturing sector would remain the CBN’s strong priority, we will no longer impose allocation rules on commercial banks.

“We will implement an effective intervention programme to support the inter-bank market to ensure adequate liquidity necessary to deliver an efficient FX market,” he said.

Okorafor said that the FMDQ trading had also been advised to activate its Foreign Exchange Order-Book systems as soon as possible and also accelerate the on-boarding of FX clients on the FX Relationship Systems to ensure total transparency of the FX market.

The apex bank urged market participants to assist in ensuring that these new measures were followed to preserve the external reserves, stability of the financial system and economic growth for the benefit of all Nigerians.