The Central Bank of Nigeria has started clearing its $7 billion backlog of foreign currency forwards owed to banks, with an initial payment of $1 billion made on Thursday.
CBN spokesperson Isah Abdulmumin confirmed the payments but declined to give the amount or name the banks that had received them.
“The CBN has started paying the FX backlogs to banks. So far, 14 banks have been paid,”he said.
According to Daily Post, some banking sources said that 14 banks had been paid so far, with varying amounts totaling about $1 billion.
Some lenders received the entire amount owed, while others got as much as 80%.
The payments follow Finance Minister Wale Edun’s announcement on October 23 that Nigeria was expecting $10 billion of inflows to improve foreign exchange market liquidity.
Local lenders have been struggling to meet demands from customers due to chronic dollar shortages in Africa’s largest economy.
New central bank governor, Yemi Cardoso, has said clearing the backlog is a priority, but gave no timeline for how long it would take.
