The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Monday reviewed the foreign exchange policy, empowering banks to sell more forex to travelers and those paying school fees and medical treatment.
The new foreign exchange policy is part of Federal Government’s efforts to increase the availability of forex in order to ease the difficulties encountered by Nigerians in obtaining funds.
Addressing newsmen after the meeting, CBN Spokesman, Isaac Okorafor, said the policy requiring banks to provide direct additional funding to banks to meet the needs of Nigerians for personal and business travel, medical needs, and school fees, takes immediate effect.
The CBN expects such retail transactions to be settled at a rate not exceeding 20 per cent above the interbank market rate.
“Having cleared the historic backlog of matured letters of credit at the inception of the current flexible exchange rate system, the CBN would immediately begin to provide foreign exchange to all commercial banks to meet the needs of both Personal Travel Allowances (PTA) and Business Travel Allowances (BTA) for onward sale to customers. All banks would receive amounts commensurate with their demand per week, which would be sold to customers who meet usual basic documentary requirements,” he said.
He said the apex bank would meet the needs of parents, guardians and sponsors seeking to make payments for school and educational fees of their children and wards.
“Such payments must be made by commercial banks directly to the institution specified by the customer. The CBN would ensure that this process is as smooth as possible and as many customers as possible get the foreign exchange they genuinely demand,” the CBN spokesman added.
South Africa shld remember dt dey hv investment in Nigeria