The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has reinstated the eight banks suspended last week from further dealings in foreign exchange transactions.
Their reinstatement, which was sequel to satisfaction with credible re-payment plan submitted by affect ed commercial banks, was announced Wednesday in Abuja at a joint press briefing by the apex bank, representative of banks’ Chief Executives and the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN).
The CBN had last week Tuesday, banned nine Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) from the nation’s foreign exchange market for failing to remit the sum of $2.3 billion belonging to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to the Treasury Single Account (TSA).
The affected banks are:United Bank for Africa ($530m); FirstBank of Nigeria ($469m); Diamond Bank Plc. ($287m); Sterling Bank Plc. ($269m); Skye Bank Plc ($221m); Fidelity Bank ($209m); Keystone Bank ($139m); FCMB ($125m) and Heritage Bank ($85m).
Access Bank had escaped the CBN’s hammer by striking a currency swap deal with the CBN, while the United Bank for Africa, which was also banned, also did a currency swap with the apex bank.
Announcing the decision to re-admit them back to the forex market after a closed-door meeting, CBN’s Director of Banking Supervision, Tokunbo Martins, said the decision to re-admit the banks to forex dealings was arrived at after exhaustive interaction among the three parties. “We just finished a meeting with the body of CEOs of banking industry and Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria.
You will recall that a while ago, a number of banks were suspended from participation in the foreign exchange market. Since then, I have received some inquiries.
“We have had engagements with body of CEOs and they have been interacting among themselves. I’m happy to tell you that the ban has been lifted on the banks.
“And the reason is that all the banks, after their engagement under the auspice of CEOs of banks and CIBN, have submitted credible re-payment plan, which we, the Central Bank, found acceptable.
“As a result of that, all those banks have been reinstated into foreign exchange market,” Martins explained.
Corroborating the CBN’s Director of Banking Supervision’s statement, the Managing Director of Access Bank plc, Herbert Wigwe, who represents banks’ CEOs, said banks will uphold the repayment plan.
“To reiterate what the Director of Banking Supervision just said, the body of banks’ CEOs under the auspices of the CIBN has agreed to get back to work together to ensure that each time there is a serious issue like this, banks’ CEOs can meet to resolve it promptly and quickly,” said the Access Bank MD.
Also speaking, CIBN President, Professor Segun Ajibola, described the body of banks’ CEOs and the CIBN as a formidable platform to resolve issues like the suspension of lenders from the forex market.
“We will protect the interests of all our stakeholders and especially the bigger picture, which is Nigeria and its economy as a whole. So it is a happy development and I believe this will further help to strengthen our system and our economy,” Ajibola stated.
The ban on the banks, which barred them from participating in forex dealings, which was globally condemned, is one of the reasons responsible for the current scarcity of forex.
Follow Us
