Banks stop forex charges, unify forex rate

FELIX OLOYEDE

Banks have agreed to stop charges on sales of Personal Travel Allowance (PTA), Basic travel Allowance (BTA), oversea medical expenses amongst others and harmonized foreign exchange at N360 to the US dollar, the Bankers committee of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) disclosed on Tuesday.

While addressing pressmen at the end of the Committee’s meeting at the CBN Lagos office,  Mrs. Hamda Ambah, Managing Director, FSDH Merchant Bank, noted that the move was aimed at achieving convergence of forex rate in the country.  .

Dollar was sold for N360.21 at the investors’ and exporters’ forex window on Wednesday, while it was stable at N363 at the parallel market, according to abokifx.com.

“It was agreed that for foreign exchange at banks sale with CBN authority to their clients-  PTA, BTA, school fess and for medical bills.

“Hence forth, banks are to charge N360 per dollar and there will be no commission by banks for such sales. It is to make sure there is a uniform sales across the banking industry,” explained Ambah.

Ahmad Abdullahi, Director, Banking Supervision, CBN, claimed the economy will sustained the 2017 growth, revealing that the nation’s foreign reserves has risen to $42 billion. Commenting on the economy outlook for 2018,

.“There is optimism regarding the nation’s economy fueled by low risk rating in the debt market. Our reserves is at the highest level of about $42 billion at the moment.

The capital market is one of the best performing market in the world and inflation has been dropping. Importantly, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth is estimated this year at 2.1 per cent by IMF and 2.5 per cent by World Bank. The nation’s economy will be far better than that of 2018,” he said.

Speaking on banks support for the federal government ERGP, MD/ CEO, Stanbic IBTC Bank Plc, Demola Sogunle, said: “We were appraised by the program of the federal government regarding the ERGP and a major aspect that has to do with the federal government led to conduct focus on three selected areas to accelerate investment and jobs creations.”

He noted that the three focus areas are power & gas, agriculture and transportation and manufacturing and processing.

“Bankers committee meeting decided to support to the ERGP in those three selected area. As part of responsible for bankers committee, we will try as much as possible to be embedded in the program in the post-lab, pre-lab and post-lab. We will participate actively to led to job creation and additional investment in the economy”, he explained.