Foreign airlines bemoan trapped $700m as CBN moves to clear remaining backlog

Foreign airlines have disclosed that about 90 per cent of their $783m remains trapped in the country as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has directed the airlines to meet their banks to clear the foreign exchange (FX) forwards backlog.

The airlines stated this during a stakeholders’ forum convened by the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, in Lagos recently.

Despite recent efforts to alleviate the situation, the airlines said a significant portion of those funds remained inaccessible to them.

The Chairman of International Airline Operators, Mr Chima Kingsley, emphasised that while international banks had received some funds from the Central Bank of Nigeria that only accounted for a fraction, less than 10 per cent of the trapped funds.

“The bulk of the blocked funds are with Nigerian commercial banks. The bulk of the money has not been paid,” he said.

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Meanwhile, airline owners have been told to meet their banks to clear the foreign exchange (FX) forwards backlog.

A senior Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) official confirmed the directive from the apex bank yesterday.

The official said the CBN will settle the remaining FX forwards backlog this week, and added that 14 banks, including Stanbic IBTC, Keystone and Citi Bank had their FX forwards contract settled last week.

The CBN official said the apex bank will not deal directly with any airline or other businesses except through their banks.

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