The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has introduced a foreign exchange (FX) price verification system (PVS) portal, according to a statement issued by the apex bank on Thursday.
The statement said a price verification report from the portal is now mandatory for all Form M requests, effective from August 31, 2023.
The Form ‘M’ is a declaration of intention to import physical goods into Nigeria.
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“Following the successful conduct of the pilot run and various trainings held with all the banks, the Central Bank of Nigeria hereby announces the Go- Live of the Price Verification System (PVS),” the statement reads.
“All applications for Forms M shall be accompanied by a valid price verification report generated from the price verification portal.
“For the avoidance of doubt, by this circular, the price verification report has become a mandatory trade document precedent to the completion of a Form M.”
“All authorized dealers are, hereby, advised to bring this to the attention of their customers”.
CBN also said any case of infraction would be appropriately sanctioned.
“Please, ensure compliance,” the bank urged exporters.
The move is understood to be part of efforts by the CBN to sanitize the forex market after it lamented that illegal activities and speculation are harming the naira.
On Wednesday, the acting CBN governor of the CBN, Folashodun Shonubi, said foreign exchange market speculators should be mindful of their actions, warning that they would inevitably face substantial losses once the government initiates its proposed strategies to stabilize the naira.
The head of the central bank also said that the government intends to take stern measures against those engaged in speculative activities within the foreign exchange market.
“We do not believe that the changes going on in the parallel market are driven by pure economic demand and supply, but are topped by speculative demand from people,” he said.
The naira has significantly improved its performance this week, gaining about N100 in the parallel market. The naira was trading around N740/$1 in the Investor & Exporter window and around N860 in the parallel market.
Last week, the CBN attributed the woeful performance of the naira in the foreign exchange market to the diversion of diaspora remittances to the black market.
“With those remittances, the dollars have come in, we know the dollars have come in but we don’t see them in the official system. So, they must be going somewhere and somewhere,” Shonubi said.
“And the challenge with the black market, unofficial market or parallel market or whatever name you want to call it, it is as a result that it is not regulated, and it becomes an easy place to have criminal activities.
“We investigate bankers, not just bankers, anybody who has committed an offense, the first thing they want to do is to run to the black markets, change it to the dollars because it is less money to carry around.”
The apex bank boss said the CBN is implementing measures within the country to manage illicit remittances. The financial regulator said putting those measures in place would help direct remittance flows through proper channels, maximizing economic benefits for growth.
The govt shd be commended for anything it does to reign I the madness FOREX apps are perpetrating in Nigeria. If I am the CBN, I will ban FOREX apps. We shd all get FOREX from banks. Then the govt requires all FOREX transactions to be reported. This is how it is done globally.
When naira was jumping from 530 to 730CAD, I received alerts every 10minutes for nearly 2weeks. Since 4 days now when the naira gained and dropped from N730 to N600, I did not get a singe alert. I had to check my app to see it. The govt shd as a matter of urgency make rates reporting a PULL notification instead of PUSH. We build these technologies. We know their power. We shd pay attention to national security. Organizations are also corporate citizens. They shd learn to be patriotic or their business operations controlled to prevent them from harming the general public.