CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele
Chief Executive Officers and other
officers of commercial banks that violate the new foreign exchange
policy unveiled by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) will henceforth be
sanctioned, the apex bank warned.
“Any bank that fails to comply with the
rules of this and other extant forex guidelines shall be sanctioned,
which will affect the executive and other officers of the bank,” CBN
Director, Financial Markets Department, Alvan Ikoku said in circular to
all banks.
The CBN had after a meeting with Deposit
Money Banks (DMBs) last Friday, issued new policy actions on Monday
aimed at easing access to foreign exchange for Personal and Business
Travel Allowances as well as educational and medical fees, among others.
As part of its new policy which takes
effect immediately, the CBN directed all banks to open forex retail
outlets at major airports as soon as logistics permit them to do such.
The apex bank also announced a $500
million Special Wholesale Intervention Forward for banks to boost dollar
liquidity in the interbank market, as well as guidelines for accessing
the funds, did not specify what punishment offending banks or their
officials shall suffer.
The $500 million intervention fund comes after forex guidelines that
gave control of the retail end of the forex market to banks through
improved funding.
Expressing optimism, CBN Acting Director, Corporate Communications Department, Isaac Okorafor, states that the wholesale intervention of the CBN
would substantially ease the foreign exchange pressure on visible and
invisible needs of customers, Okorafor assured that the bank would
continue to make interventions based on qualified bids from the banks on
the requests of their customers.
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