CBN: EFCC Goes After Claimants Of Illegal $2.4bn Forex Backlog

The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, said security agencies are currently investigating claimants of forex backlog to the tune of $2.7 billion.

CBN governor Yemi Cardoso made this known on Tuesday during the monthly MPC meeting in Abuja, the nation’s capital.

The magazine reports that Cardoso recently stated that the government-controlled bank will not pay some forex backlog left by the administration of Godwin Emefiele, because they were deemed illegal and fraudulent.

Cardoso made the remark after the CBN claimed it had cleared all forex backlog to the tune of $7 billion as part of the bank’s efforts to ensure more liquidity in the system.

Speaking yesterday, the CBN governor said all unverified forex debt left by the Emefiele- led CBN will not be paid. Those making the claims that they are owed but whose claims cannot be substantiated, the apex bank governor said are currently being probed by security agencies.

Sources in the bank informed the magazine that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has been detailed to investigate those making the illegal claims with a view to defraud the government.

According to Nigeria’s extant law, the EFCC is the agency saddled with the responsibility of probing economic and financial crimes.

“The files of all illegal forex claims discovered by the CBN have been sent to the EFCC for probe. We believe the agency will get to the root of the matter, with a view of advising the CBN on what to do next,” a source said on Wednesday.

Speaking on the issue the CBN governor said the illegal forex claims were discovered after the apex bank brought in “Deloitte Consultants to look at the books.”

According to him, the law enforcement agencies have already ordered a clampdown after CBN’s advise to that effect.

Cardoso stated: “With respect to the foreign exchange forwards, when we came in September, we had a backlog of forwards that were contracted. It was very important for the credibility of the CBN at that time, we certify and take care of the forwards.

“There were a number of transactions that had issues with genuineness. We brought in Deloitte Consultants to look at the books.

“We determined that a number of transactions were not qualified for payment. In some cases, we had some allocations in million of dollars which were never requested for. We had somewhere there was no Naira but they were allocated, etc. And it was for that reasons that we refused to validate those transactions because apart from the fact that documentation was not satisfactory in many cases, they were outright illegal.

“The law enforcement agencies are now looking into those transactions that are not valid to be paid as far as we are concerned. The law enforcement agencies are taking it very serious about those transactions.

“The figure is about $2.4 billion ineligible transactions. There have been several cases Allocations were made where no-one asked for, allocations were made but no Naira was available, no proper documentation, etc, those are some of the infractions that we discovered”.

Meanwhile, the CBN has raised the Monetary Policy Rate aka interest rate by 200 basic points to 24.75 percent from 22.75 percent from last month’s figure. The decision to hike the MPR, experts insist, is a further signal that the Cardoso-led CBN is poised to tighten the belt on inflation and reduce money supply in circulation.