Top Bank executives have said that Nigerian banks are currently under pressure to meet customers’ foreign exchange (forex) demand amid scarcity of the dollar in the financial services sector.
The Executives spoke on Thursday, June 25, at the “CEOS Roundtable: Banking & Oil Industries” organized by Bloomberg in Lagos.
The Group Managing Director/CEO, FirstBank of Nigeria Limited, Bisi Onasanya, said forex scarcity was making it difficult for lenders to immediately meet the demands of importers requiring the greenback for transactions.
“Banks are not getting forex. Forex is drying up from the market. I sympathise with the CBN at this time and we cannot keep supporting the naira at this rate,” Onasanya said.
Onasanya said many manufacturers had huge cash, but no forex to buy. He attributed the scarcity to the go down in oil revenues, which is expected to drop from $84 billion in 2014 to $55 billion in 2015..
Zenith Bank Managing Director/CEO Peter Amangbo, who spoke in the same vein, stated that the CBN was yet to clear the backlog of forex demands from importers and until that is done, it will be unwise to allow market forces decide the fate of the naira.
The naira on Thursday, June 25, suffered a major setback, 24 hours after the announcement of the new forex policy by the CBN.
