Relief for Nigeria as CBN clears Matured FX Forwards with some banks 

Nigeria’s central bank cleared matured forward foreign-exchange contracts with an unspecified number of banks in the West African nation, a key step targeted by the government to help stabilize the naira.

The amount of overdue forward payments is estimated at about $6.7 billion, according to government officials. 

Clearing that backlog has weighed on the naira, which fell to a record low of almost 1,000 per dollar on the official market this week.

The central bank took steps on Wednesday to clear the maturing contracts with the banks, spokesman Isa Abdulmumin said by phone from the capital, Abuja, on Thursday. 

He wasn’t immediately able to comment on how much of the forward contracts had been cleared.

The scarcity of dollars in Nigeria has forced buyers looking for hard currency onto the streets of the nation’s cities, where the naira changed hands at 1,167 per dollar on Thursday. 

Inflation in Africa’s biggest economy is also at the highest in more than 18 years, prompting economists to predict that the central bank will raise interest rates again at its next meeting.