CBN to punish defaulters of 90-day repatriation window

The Central Bank of Nigeria has given exporters who failed to repatriate their proceed, a 90-day moratorium to comply or face complete ban from banking services in Nigeria.

The Director Banking Supervision Ahmed Abdullahi disclosed this at the end of the first bankers committee held in Lagos yesterday.

Abdullahi said, “there is a provision in the foreign exchange manual that requires all exporters to repatriate the proceeds of their exports. A number of exporters don’t and we are saying, an exporter may be banned from accessing banking services in Nigeria.”

In the same light, Chief executive officer of Citi Bank, Akin Daawodu said, “a sought of stricter measure was agreed and a 90 days moratorium was agreed for the backlog to be cleared, after which the CBN will resume its right to punish defaulters.”

The foreign exchange guideline stipulates the repatriation of crude oil proceed, not longer than 90 days, while non-oil export has a grace period of 180 days.

The bankers committee have unanimously agreed to harmonize the sales of foreign exchange at N360 to a dollar by removing the extra commission charged by individual banks.

Hamda Ambah, the Managing Director of FSDH Merchant bank said, “there were some misunderstanding and some banks were charging some commission in addition to the N360.

“We are saying by this declaration that we have unified that rate for the benefit of Nigerians and we urge customers of banks to report any bank that is found wanting.”

The banks are currently buying at N357 and selling at N360 while the bureau de change buy at N360 and are expected to sell at N363 to a dollar.

Abdullahi also informed that the guideline for the Agric SMEs fund is ready and by March, the funds should begin to gain traction.