FX debt: CBN owing only five banks – Cardoso

The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Olayemi Cardoso, has said that foreign exchange backlogs have been cleared in all the banks except just five.

Cardoso made this known on Thursday, February 29 during an investor call facilitated by the Nigerian Exchange Group, during which he said that the remainder of the banks’ FX backlogs would be cleared in the next few days.

He stated, “Basically, what we have done with those is that we have paid as much as we can to the point where we have cleared the backlog of all the banks save five. All the banks’ genuine and verifiable backlogs have been cleared, save five.

“We are confident that we will shortly be in a position where the whole issue of forwards would be behind us. I would say in the next few days we should be in a position where the balance of the five would have been put behind us.

“I have tried as much as possible to be consistent on this matter. I don’t make promises I don’t fulfil. The last time I spoke on this matter, I was confident that within one month, we would be more or less out of it and I’m saying again that right now, I think in the course of the next few days maybe a week and a half, this should be put behind us.”

Cardoso also revealed that Nigeria had attracted $2bn in foreign portfolio inflows this year.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics, Nigeria recorded a total of $3bn in foreign portfolio inflows in 2023.