The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) said it has uncovered a sum of $2.4 billion out of the previously reported $7 billion foreign exchange (FX) backlog claims that were deemed invalid following a forensic audit.
CBN Governor, Olayemi Cardoso, made this disclosure during an interview on Monday.
Cardoso said the audit, conducted by Deloitte, revealed irregularities in the documentation and qualifications of entities claiming part of the backlog.
He stated that the apex bank identified issues with a significant portion of the claims and noted that these invalid claims were due to various irregularities, including missing import documents, non-existent entities, and inflated requests.
The CBN governor added that the apex bank will not be paying [these invalid claims] because there were whole loads of infractions, noting that the bank’s commitment to settling only verified transactions.
The audit confirmed $4.6 billion in legitimate claims, of which $2.3 billion has already been cleared. The remaining $2.2 billion will be addressed “shortly,” according to Cardoso.
He noted that, in dealing with those that are not valid, the apex bank wrote to the authorised dealers to come in and explain what the situation was and where the numbers differed.
