Naira May Rebound As Cbn Repays Banks Next Week

Folashodun Shonubi, the Acting Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), has announced that the apex bank is poised to clear all outstanding forward contract debts owed to banks in the coming one to two weeks. While the specific total of these outstanding dollar debts was not disclosed by Shonubi, a recent report by JPMorgan, a U.S.-based bank, estimated the CBN's total forward contract debt at $6.84 billion. Despite dismissing the JPMorgan report, the acting CBN governor emphasized that the central bank has been in discussions with various banks regarding these forward contract debts for some time. He further assured that the repayment of these debts would be executed within the span of one to two weeks. Shonubi, who spoke in Lagos, said, “There is no outstanding $7bn as claimed by JP Morgan. It was just their opinion that was put on paper, and many people jumped on it “In response to questions about the backlogs, the banks have been working with the CBN on various structures to clear them. So, what happens is that at maturity, they make the foreign exchange available to those that need it. “We are discussing with them so we can structure their own. So, we are working towards clearing them in the next one or two weeks. It is something we have been discussing for a while.”