The Central Bank of Nigeria has disclosed that it has concluded payment of all verified claims by airlines with an additional sixty-four point four four million dollars to the concerned airlines.
The Acting Director of Corporate Communications at the apex bank, Hakama Sidi Ali, confirmed this in a statement on Tuesday, saying the payment was part of fulfilment of its pledge to clear the backlog of foreign exchange owed to foreign airlines in the country.
The statement reads, “The Governor, Olayemi Cardoso, and his team were doubly committed and would stop at nothing to ensure that the verified backlog of payments across all other sectors was cleared and confidence was restored in the Nigerian foreign exchange market.”
Furthermore, she assured that the CBN was working with stakeholders to ensure liquidity improves within the forex market, thereby reducing pressure on the Naira.
While expressing optimism that the market would respond positively with the latest injection of over $64m, she admonished actors in the foreign exchange market to guard against speculation as such actions could hurt the Naira.
The delay in the debt repayment has been said to be responsible for the current volatility in the forex market, a situation that has led to the falling value of the naira against the US dollar.
The CBN earlier paid two billion dollars to clear a part of its backlog of matured foreign exchange obligations to the Deposit Money Banks while foreign airlines in Nigeria have struggled with the challenge of repatriating their ticket sales in foreign exchange.
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