Moody's Says Forex Shortages May Force Nigerian Central Bank to Delay Repaying Local Banks.
18 Feb 2023, 08:00
Moody’s Says Forex Shortages May Force Nigerian Central Bank to Delay Repaying Local Banks
The persistent scarcity of foreign exchange may force the Nigerian central bank to delay repaying the $10.4 billion owed to local banks, analysts at Moody’s Investors Service have concluded. The central bank’s failure to pay its debts on time will likely force the affected financial institutions to similarly delay paying back their own forex-denominated debts.
Nigeria’s Declining Oil RevenuesNigeria’s perennial shortage of foreign exchange may likely result in the country’s central bank failing to repay domestic lenders on time, the rating agency Moody’s Investors Service has said. As reported by Bloomberg, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) owes the West African nation’s so-called rated commercial lenders about $10.4 billion which the bank received in the form of swaps and forwards.
According to Moody’s analysts that include Mik Kabeya and Lynn Merhi, the anticipated central bank debt repayment delay may similarly force the affected banks to delay settling their own offshore obligations.