Exporters with un-remitted forex proceeds to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) will on February 5, face sanctions including being blacklisted from the financial system by the regulator.
In a letter titled: ‘Re: Non-Repatriation of Export Proceeds by Exporters’ sent to one of bank CEOs, the apex bank said it carried out spot checks and discovered various amount of pending foreign exchange proceeds with the commercial banks.
In a letter addressed to managing director of one of the Tier-1 banks, the apex bank said: “Our letter dated October 2, 2020 on the outcome of the spot check and which we requested your bank to ensure the full repatriation of export proceeds amounting to $26,139,474.89 for non-oil, refers”.
“We write to inform you that after reviewing responses received at the expiration of the grace on 31st October 2020, an additional grace period has been approved, extending the deadline to 31st January 2021”.
Continuing, the letter signed by CBN Director, Trade and Exchange Department, O.S Nnaji, said: “Consequently, you are buy this letter mandated to request your customers with outstanding export proceeds to repatriate, failing which the customer would be barred from accessing all banking services in line with the provisions of the circular dated 26th October, 2017. Accordingly, you are to submit to the Director, Trade and Exchange Department, status report on compliance with this directive by each exporter before the close of business on Friday, February 5, 2021″.
Many of the banks have written to the affected customers, advising them to comply before the deadline of January 31, 2021. “All customers with un-repatriated export proceeds are therefore required to comply with this directive before the specified date,” the bank said.
The CBN on January 13, announced the prohibition of all Nigerian exporters who are yet to repatriate their export proceeds, from banking services effective from January 31, 2021.
The apex bank has a standing policy that mandates exporters to repatriate exports within 90 days for oil and gas and 180 days for non-oil exports constitute a breach of the extant regulation.
The CBN move is part of a monetary control mechanism to boost forex positions, especially after the pandemic created a wide disparity between the official exchange and the parallel market rates, eliminating incidences of over-invoicing, transfer pricing, double handling charges.
The CBN had accused shipping and airline companies of not remitting export proceeds to the economy, depriving Nigeria of badly needed dollar earnings.
The CBN’s Foreign Exchange Manual mandates all exporters to repatriate export proceeds back to the country to increase foreign exchange liquidity, support the naira and and lift the economy.
The regulator has been monitoring non-oil exporters, especially airlines and shipping firms, and assessing their compliance with the export proceeds repatriation policy.
In a circular to authorised dealers, Nigerian Custom Service, Nigerian Shippers Council, and other stakeholders, Nnaji, said the apex bank had observed with dismay, the non-compliance by shipping and airline companies to its directive on export proceeds remittance.
The CBN guidelines required that Bills of Lading /Airway Bill in respect of exports from Nigeria carry the Central Bank Of Nigeria Automates Nigerian Export Proceeds Form (Form NXP) number in respect of the underlying cargoes.
It also mandated electronic processing of Form NXP on the Trade Monitoring System (TRMS) has not been complied with. “Shipping and Airlines companies are required to access the TRMS platform to generate Form NXP numbers for capture on the Bill of Lading for export cargoes,” he said.
The apex bank said all shipment of export cargoes from Nigeria shall henceforth, be in accordance with aforementioned procedures.
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