Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Olayemi Cardoso, announced on Wednesday that the Federal Government has cleared the outstanding $7bn foreign exchange backlog to various firms following a successful verification exercise by forensic auditors.

Cardoso disclosed this at the launch of Nigeria’s Regulatory Policy Framework organised by the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council.

The event, which was tagged the regulators’ forum, took place at the State House Conference Hall in Abuja.

Addressing the audience, Cardoso explained that the bank was optimistic the clearance of the $7bn backlog would ease the bottlenecks associated with the repatriation of funds by businesses, multinationals, and foreign investors.

According to the CBN governor, the outstanding forex clearance took far longer than they earlier anticipated.

He said, “In addressing foreign exchange liquidity constraint, decisive steps have been taken to clear outstanding $7bn forex backlog to ensure that businesses, multinationals, corporations, and foreign investors can repatriate funds seamlessly

‘This initiative has restored confidence among market participants and reinforced Nigeria’s commitment to honouring financial obligations in a timely and efficient manner. Talking about the $7bn backlog, we have cleared the verified claims.

“We also looked at the unverified ones, and I believe that we are at the final stages of separating what qualifies as fully verified, and we will surely be paying out those money that have been verified by the forensic auditors. It is unfortunate, to be honest, that it has taken so long.

“But the truth of the matter is that there were a lot of practices that went on that really should never have happened in the first place. That said, we are going to ensure that we do what we need to do to strengthen our market and create a better trust in what you investors naturally desire and deserve.”

Earlier in her address, PEBEC Director-General, Princess Zahrah Audu explained that one of the key indicators for the commission was that the majority of the companies expected the government to provide them with a stable and predictable policy environment.

Audu also shared the President’s sentiment that it was the same aim they aimed to achieve with the policy framework.

She said, “We are going to help you become a part of the formation of this policy because one of the things we actively encourage our MDAs to do is to have a sectoral stakeholder engagement in smaller groups. Now there is a more thorough process to go through before a policy is passed into law.

“It is very important to note that this administration will do things differently. We are constantly asking for your input because we don’t think we know it all. When you look at business from a government perspective, it is very different from looking at it from a private sector view.

“It is important that we always balance the two and see ourselves as stakeholders. Our doors will always be open, and we will be very responsive when it comes to calls and emails. As earlier said, my predecessor has left a viable platform for us to build on.”