The Federal Government through the Central Bank of Nigeria, has commenced payment of outstanding matured FX forwards owed to various creditors, The PUNCH reports. A source familiar with the development confirmed the payment on Thursday. Meanwhile, unconfirmed sources said three banks received full payment of debts owed. The banks are Citi Bank, Stanbic IBTC and Standard Chartered Bank. The amount of overdue forward payments is estimated at $6.7 billion, according to the Minister of Finance, Wale Edun. This represents an appreciation of N50 or 4.27 per cent compared to the N1,170 it traded for on Wednesday. Currency traders, also known as Bureaux De Change operators, who spoke to The PUNCH stated the naira was recovering well after making a quick recovery from N1,170/dollar in the morning to close trading at N1,120/dollar. However, there are commercial banks in the system that are not happy with the CBN because they have yet to receive any credit alert. Sources at the CBN who spoke to The PUNCH unofficially said, "The banks who have not received payments are grumbling, alleging that the Apex bank has denied them of their rights."
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