By Modupe Gbadeyanka
Commercial banks in Nigeria have been directed by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to file their foreign exchange returns in Dollar.
This order was given on Thursday by the apex bank in a statement issued by its spokesman, Mr Isaac Okorafor.
The CBN explained that this move became necessary following the insinuations in some quarters that the apex bank was involved in the sale of Dollar to customers.
In the statement, the CBN maintained that it does not “deal directly with any bank customer on foreign exchange transactions, but stressed that such “transactions are consummated strictly between the customers and their respective Deposit Money Banks (DMBs).”
It said further that in “pursuant to our policy of transparency, we publish the reports of purchases and sales of forex between the DMBs and their customers, as submitted by the banks without editing.”
The CBN explained that this “practice of publishing the figures on our website has been on since October 2016.”
The apex bank said based on the controversies raised in some quarters, banks will now have to render their returns in a uniform format converting all forex sales and purchases to NGN/USD.
“To prevent any such occurrence in the future, the CBN has directed ALL Deposit Money Banks to render their returns in a uniform format converting all forex sales and purchases to NGN/USD.
“All third currency transactions are also to be converted to NGN/USD,” the CBN said in the statement.
Adedapo Adesanya