Ajayi-Kadir explained that the CBN issued foreign exchange forward contracts promising to deliver foreign currency at a specified future date in exchange for an upfront naira payment but recently revealed that it could not honour the contracts due to an ongoing investigation by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission into some foreign exchange transactions.

The MAN DG stated that there were far-reaching consequences for the Nigerian manufacturing sector when the CBN delayed in keeping its part of the contract.

He lamented how many businesses had borrowed money from banks to open letters of credit for their companies based on the forward contracts allocated by the CBN and the failure to redeem their contracts had left businesses in a financial bind.

“In this case, no clear allegations or infractions have been communicated to any of our members and none have been indicted for any infractions. The forwards have remained unredeemed.

“This $2.4bn worth of forward contracts from the backlog of $7bn has triggered a severe crisis for the manufacturing sector and the Nigerian economy,” he added.

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