CBN Allocates $20m to Banks for School Fees, Others

• CBN Allocates $20m to Banks for School Fees, Others

As part of the efforts to ease economic challenges in the country, the Central Bank of Nigeria on Friday announced that each of the 20 commercial banks in the country will receive an allocation of one million dollars weekly.

According to the apex bank, the fund is meant to facilitate payment of school fees, medicals and personal and business travel.

The relief agreed at the bankers’ committee meeting, will help reduce forex illiquidity and further enhance business transactions as CBN continued to support the economy while implementing diversification plan.

It should also be recall that the CBN last week sold $660 million in three and five month currency forwards to clear forex backlogs, while promising to abide by the new 60:40 foreign exchange policy to aid manufacturing and agricultural sector.

A total of $2.83 billion was sold between December last year and January this year, according to the CBN. However, this was below $4.8 billion monthly forex demand required to sufficiently service the economy.

On the weekly forex allocation, commercial banks are expected to sell the dollars at N375 starting from Monday.

Similarly, Nigeria’s foreign reserves rose from $29 billion on Wednesday to $29.1 billion on Thursday. However, the oil inventories in New York, U.S has risen to a record high — a situation experts said could force oil prices lower and hurt current progress.