E-Financial
CBN Uncovers $2.4Bn False Forex Claim Pressuring Naira – Cardoso
Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) uncovered invalid foreign overdue claims totalling $2.4 billion, which have pressured the naira for long and spooked the currency market, Olayemi Cardoso, governor, Central Bank, said on Monday.
Olayemi Cardoso, governor, Central Bank,
Cardoso said the discovery was made after an audit by the consultant that the Central Bank engaged brought several shady deals to light.
After seven years of being concealed from public knowledge, the audited accounts of the CBN became public last year during which auditors revealed a $7 billion backlog of unmet dollar demand from investors and currency users.
That has created an overhang in the market which, unless cleared, could keep the naira pressured, leaving the currency on a continued free fall against the dollar.
The CBN hired Deloitte to investigate the forex claims to get a true picture of things,
Cardoso said during an interview with local TV Arise, broadcast Monday morning.
The Deloitte report found that as much as $2.4 billion of the said backlog are false claims, with claimers unable to present import documents in some instances, he said
“We had had reasons to believe we needed to take a harder look at these obligations. So we contracted Deloitte management consultants to do forensics of all these obligations and to actually tell us what was valid and what was not,” Cardoso said.
“The result that came out of this was startling in a great respect. It was startling. We discovered that of the roughly $7 billion, about $2.4 billion had issues, which we believe had no business being there and the infractions on that ranged from so many things, for example not having valid import documents and in some cases, entities that do not exist.
“There were account parties who had asked for foreign exchange and got more than they asked for. There were some who didn’t even ask for any and got. So there were whole loads of infractions there,” he added.
Nigeria’s naira has been on a much-prolonged retreat, dating back to the pandemic days, against the dollar as a heap of unmet obligations to investors and exporters continues to strain the currency, which has weakened to a dross.
Naira finished 2023 as the world’s worst-performing currency, weighed down by illiquidity and commonplace speculative practices among market operators and street traders.
Currency users are having to throng the parallel market, where the exchange rate is higher but the dollar is in greater supply, to have their needs met.
President Bola Tinubu set out shortly after his inauguration last year to liberalise the foreign exchange system, which has been bogged down by an unorthodox regime that pegged the exchange rate rather than allowing the naira to trade freely and find price discovery.
The CBN collapsed the multiple naira exchange rates, adopted under the immediate past CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele, into a single window as part of a slew of currency reforms that followed. It went further to initiate its first devaluation round under the current administration around mid-June.
Those market-friendly moves were aimed at courting international investors but they are hurting Nigerians at home, considering that they are adding fuel to an already elevated inflation by making imported goods and raw materials much more expensive.
In the week that just went by, naira’s official rate dived by over 36 per cent, dropping to a lower level than the street rate, after the CBN overhauled its approach to setting the rate in the official market and came hard on traders involved in misguiding the public with distorted prices.
Between the point Mr Tinubu took office and now, the naira has depreciated by approximately 68 per cent, 50 per cent in 2023 alone.
But banks also have been fingered in the speculative activities that are pressuring the naira.
Cardoso gave a tall order to banks at the end of January, ordering them to increase dollar supply to the market by ensuring their foreign exchange net open position does not exceed 20 per cent of shareholders’ funds unimpeded by losses.
Put differently, the gross amount of loans lenders can grant in foreign currency must not exceed one-fifth of their shareholders’ funds, which could force banks to make the remaining cash available to the market, a push that could boost liquidity in the system.
Cardoso said at the interview that those making invalid claims of $2.4 billion would not get anything.
“As they were identified, we wrote to the authorised dealers to come in and explain what the situation was. Sadly, quite frankly, much of those has not been disputed to our satisfaction.”
So far, the apex bank has settled requests in the neighbourhood of $2.3 billion including those from airlines operating in the country, he went further to say. That leaves the balance of the genuine arrears of dollar demand at $2.2 billion.
Cardoso assured that the remainder will be cleared very shortly.
“I think we are at the end of this, to put it that way,” he said.
Last month, Wale Edun, the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, told Bloomberg the government had opened talks with the World Bank with a view to securing a lifeline of between $1 billion and $1.5 billion from the World Bank to rescue the naira.
Federal Capital Territory High Court has ordered Stanbic IBTC Bank Limited to pay N15 million in damages to two former customers after finding that the bank unlawfully retained and processed their personal information after they had terminated their banking relationship.
In a judgment delivered on July 29, Justice Kayode Agunloye also directed the bank to erase all personal data belonging to the claimants that it is not legally required to retain and restrained it from further processing or using such information without lawful authority or the customers’ consent.
The court held that the bank breached the Nigeria Data Protection Act (NDPA) 2023, the claimants’ constitutional right to privacy under Section 37 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), and provisions of the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Act (FCCPA).
The suit, marked CV/2190/25, was filed by David Ogundipe and Salami Tolulope Ibrahim, who argued that Stanbic IBTC continued to process their personal data for marketing purposes even after they had closed their corporate account with the bank.
According to the claimants, the account was shut following unresolved issues with the bank.
Despite the closure, they alleged that Stanbic IBTC continued sending promotional emails and text messages to their personal and corporate email addresses as well as their telephone numbers.
The customers said their solicitors later wrote to the bank demanding that all marketing communications cease and that their personal data should no longer be processed for promotional purposes.
Although the bank reportedly acknowledged the request and assured them that the messages would stop, the unsolicited communications allegedly continued, prompting them to seek judicial intervention.
In his ruling, Justice Agunloye held that once the banking relationship had ended and the customers had withdrawn their consent, the bank no longer had any lawful basis to process their personal data for marketing activities.
The judge ruled that the continued use of the claimants’ information amounted to an infringement of their constitutional right to privacy and constituted an unfair trade practice under the FCCPA.
The court consequently ordered Stanbic IBTC to delete all personal information relating to the claimants that it is not legally required to retain and to cease every form of data processing except where permitted by law or regulatory obligations.
Justice Agunloye also granted a perpetual injunction restraining the bank, its officers and agents from retaining, processing, transmitting or using the claimants’ personal data for marketing, promotional or any other unauthorised purpose.
While the claimants sought N250 million as damages, the court awarded N15 million as general damages, describing the amount as adequate compensation for the persistent unsolicited communications, the bank’s failure to honour requests for data erasure and the violation of the customers’ privacy rights.
The bank was further ordered to pay N500,000 as the cost of the suit, while the claim for N7 million as litigation expenses was dismissed for lack of sufficient proof.
Justice Agunloye directed that all monetary awards would attract 10 per cent post-judgment interest annually until fully settled.
However, the court declined to order the complete deletion of every record relating to the claimants, holding that banks remain under statutory obligations to retain certain customer records in compliance with financial regulations and anti-money laundering laws.
Reacting to the verdict, counsel to the claimants, O.E. Oluwadamisi of Earnest Attorneys LP, described the decision as a landmark judgment for data protection in Nigeria.
He said the ruling reinforces the mandatory nature of compliance with the Nigeria Data Protection Act and makes it clear that organisations cannot continue processing customers’ personal information after consent has been withdrawn unless authorised by law.
One of the successful claimants, David Ogundipe, welcomed the judgment, saying it represented a victory not only for the litigants but also for millions of Nigerians whose personal information is held by corporate organisations.
He expressed hope that the ruling would encourage institutions across the country to strengthen compliance with data protection laws and place greater respect on customers’ privacy rights.
The number of Bank Verification Numbers (BVNs) on the Nigerian banking industry’s fraud watchlist reached 13,117, according to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
This is coming as banks strengthen efforts to detect and prevent financial crimes.
According to the CBN’s 2025 Annual Report and Statement of Accounts, the number of BVNs on the banking industry’s fraud watchlist increased from 9,476 in 2024 to 13,117 in 2025. This represents a 38.4 per cent increase.
The apex bank explained that commercial banks, including Access Bank, Zenith Bank, United Bank for Africa (UBA), and other financial institutions, added 3,641 new BVNs to the watchlist during the year.
The report said the increase reflects stronger fraud monitoring, improved compliance, better risk management, and enhanced systems for detecting suspicious transactions.
It added that the higher number does not necessarily mean fraud has increased, but shows banks are becoming more active in identifying and blocking suspicious activities.
The report also revealed that consumer lending declined for the first time since 2019.
Outstanding consumer credit dropped by 19.89 per cent, falling from N4.72 trillion in 2024 to N3.78 trillion in 2025.
The CBN attributed the decline to high interest rates, which made borrowing more expensive for many Nigerians.
Personal loans recorded the biggest drop, falling to N1.85 trillion.
However, retail loans rose by 63.77 per cent to N1.94 trillion, making them the largest category of consumer credit for the first time in several years.
Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), has ordered banks to refund a total N19.12 billion to customers for illegal deductions and poor complaint handling.
This is coming as bank customers lodged 23,129 complaints against financial institutions in 2025, representing 11 per cent increase over the previous year.
The apex bank also imposed N1.69 billion in penalties on financial institutions for regulatory breaches, poor complaint handling and failure to comply with its directives, according to its 2025 Annual Report.
The CBN attributed the increase in complaints to growing public confidence in its consumer protection framework rather than a deterioration in banking services.
The report stated: “The Bank received a total of 23,129 complaints from consumers of financial services in 2025, a rise of 10.53 per cent above the 20,925 in 2024. The trend reflected increased awareness and improved confidence in the Bank’s consumer complaint resolution process.”
The apex bank added: “A total of 18,824 complaints were resolved, indicating a 9.36 per cent increase over the 17,213 complaints resolved in 2024.”
On the value of disputed transactions, the CBN said: “Total claims in local currency increased to N40.61 billion from N17.13 billion in 2024. Foreign currency claims also rose, reaching $344.2 million compared with $1.06 million in the preceding year.”
According to the report, “Based on the resolved complaints, the sums of N19.12 billion and $329.3 million were refunded in 2025, compared with N9.66 billion and $0.67 million in 2024.”
The CBN said it strengthened enforcement against erring financial institutions during the year.
It stated: “During the review period, the Bank imposed 11 penalties on financial institutions totalling N1.26 billion for infractions ranging from regulatory breaches and failure to respond to regulatory queries.”
The report further disclosed: “In addition, the Bank imposed 21 penalties on financial institutions to the tune of N430 million for infractions ranging from delays in resolving customer complaints to failure to comply with the Bank’s directives.”
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