The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has released the sum of $265 million to airlines operating in the country, to settle outstanding of their ticket sales.
This was contained in a statement issued on Friday August 26, 2022 by the Director, Corporate Communications Department, CBN, Osita Nwanisobi.
Foreign airlines had threatened to shutdown flight operations in and out of the country over failure to repatriate blocked revenue that has accumulated to about $400m as at July, 2022, due to foreign exchange scarcity.
Similarly, stakeholders in the aviation sector had appealed to the Federal Government to address the issue without further delay to save Nigeria from International embarrassment.
A breakdown of the figure by the apex bank indicated that $230m was released as special foreign exchange intervention while another $35m was released through Retail SMIS auction.
Nwanisobi said that the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele and his team were concerned about the development and what it portends for the sector and travellers as well as the country in the comity of nations.
He retiterated that the bank was not against any company repatriating its funds from the country, adding that what the bank stood for was an orderly exit for those that might be interested in doing so.
“With Friday’s release, it is expected that operators and travelers as well will heave huge sighs of relief, as some airlines had threatened to withdraw their services in the face of unremitted funds for outstanding sale of tickets”, the CBN said.
