According to statements credited to the apex bank’s spokesman, Mr. Isaac Okorafor, the regulator took action based on field reports which showed that only eight lenders sold foreign exchange to small firms since the start of the window in April, 2017.
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CBN bars 16 commercial banks from dollar auctions
The suspension was based on allegations of forex hoarding by the affected banks.
Mr. Godwin Emefiele, CBN Governor
"The action will be lifted immediately any of the affected banks show evidence of significant utilization of the fund allocated to them under the SME window," he said.
Without the CBN’s spokesman mentioning names of affected banks, investigations by our correspondent showed that Access Bank Plc, Diamond Bank Plc, Fidelity Bank Plc, Heritage Bank Plc, Jaiz Bank Plc, Sterling Bank Plc, Unity Bank Plc and Zenith Bank Plc were exempted from the ban.
The Nigerian monetary authorities in February,2017 initiated various forex market intervention programs, which are aimed at increasing dollars supply and reducing the gap between the official and parallel markers rates.
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At present the dollar official market rate is N305.80 and the black market rate N391 as at opening of business on Wednesday, May 3, 2017.
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