No less than 14 commercial banks including First Bank and the United Bank for Africa (UBA), have been barred from dealing in the Small and Medium Entreprises (SMEs) wholesale forex window. Other banks include FCMB, Keystone Bank, Main Street Bank, Stanbic IBTC, Citi Bank, Enterprise Bank, Ecobank, WEMA Bank, Guaranty Trust Bank, Union Bank, SunTrust Bank and Standard Chartered Bank.

In a statement released on Tuesday, CBN Spokesman, Isaac Okorafor, explained that the banks were barred after several complaints that Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) intentionally discourage efforts by many SMEs to access forex from the new window created by the apex bank.

According to him, the decision was taken after field reports revealed that only eight out of 22 banks had sold forex to SMEs since the start of the new window.

He said CBN frowns at this action and all banks that had refused to sell forex after accessing over $300 million offered through the SMEs window would be sanctioned.

Okorafor listed other banks not barred to include, Access Bank Plc, Diamond Bank Plc, Fidelity Bank, Heritage Bank, Jaiz Bank, Sterling Bank, Unity Bank and Zenith Bank.

Let’s recall that in April the CBN introduced a special foreign exchange window to respond to the needs of the SMEs and enable them to import eligible finished and semi-finished goods. In this framework, every enterprise had access to $20,000 each quarter, in line with the bank’s strategy to improve the price of day-to-day imported products in the market.

Anita Fatunji