For deliberately frustrating Small Medium Scale Enterprises from accessing the foreign exchange market, Forex, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), on Tuesday, barred 15 banks from dealing in the SME wholesale Forex window.
The banks are First Bank, the United Bank for Africa (UBA) FCMB, Keystone Bank, Main Street Bank, Stanbic IBTC, Citi Bank, Enterprise Bank, Ecobank, and WEMA Bank.
Others are Guaranty Trust Bank, Union Bank, SunTrust Bank, Standard Chartered Bank were also affected.
The CBN spokesman, Mr Isaac Okorafor, an acting Director in a statement in Abuja, said the affected banks were barred, based on field reports that confirmed persistent complaints that some Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) deliberately frustrate efforts by many SMEs to access Forex from the new window created by CBN.
He disclosed that only eight banks out of 22 had sold Forex to the SMEs segment since the inception of the new window.
He said the banks had no reason, not even an excuse to do what they had been doing because CBN supplied enough Forex.
Okorafor said all banks that had refused to sell forex to the SMEs after accessing over 300 million dollars offered through the SMEs window since its creation last month will be sanctioned accordingly.
He listed the good banks to include: Access Bank Plc, Diamond Bank Plc, Fidelity Bank, Heritage Bank, Jaiz Bank, Sterling Bank, Unity Bank and Zenith Bank.
The apex bank had on Tuesday injected $196.2 million into the various segments of the Forex and also offered 100 million to authorized dealers at Tuesday’s Forex wholesale auction.
Of the total amount SMEs got $52 million while Personal and Basic Travel Allowance, medicals and tuition fees received $44.2 million.
The SME Window is to enable SMEs import finished and semi-finished items not exceeding $20,000 for an enterprise per quarter.
