Nigeria’s Central Bank Clears Foreign Airlines’ Trapped Funds With Additional $64.44Million Payment

January 30, 2024

NEWS

According to her, the apex bank paid an additional $64.44 million to ensure it completed the payment.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has claimed that it has finalised the payment of all verified foreign exchange (FX) claims belonging to foreign aviation firms, but trapped in the country.

This was revealed by Hakama Sidi-Ali, CBN’s Acting Director of Corporate Communications, on Tuesday. According to her, the apex bank paid an additional $64.44 million to ensure it completed the payment.

 Sidi-Ali stated that the latest payment to the airlines pushed the total verified sum disbursed to the sector to $136.73 million, emphasising that all verified airline claims have now been resolved.

 

According to Sidi-Ali, CBN Governor Olayemi Cardoso and his team are dedicated to clearing the verified backlog of payments across all sectors and restoring confidence in the Nigerian FX market.  She added that the apex bank was working with partners to increase liquidity in the FX market and lower pressure on the country’s currency.

 While expressing confidence that the market will respond positively to the current infusion of more than $64 million, she cautioned FX market participants to avoid speculating, which might harm the naira.

 

SaharaReporters had reported how Nigeria topped the list of 27 countries with $2 billion trapped airlines’ funds globally in December 2022. Nigeria had $551 million, Pakistan had $225 million, Bangladesh had $208 million, Lebanon had $144 million, and Algeria had $140 million, according to The International Air Transport Association (IATA).

The IATA also said that as of August 2023, the tapped fund in Nigeria had increased to about $783 million.