FG bows to pressure as CBN releases $265m out of $600 million trapped funds

Pressured to find a solution to the controversial crisis rocking the foreign airlines’ trapped funds in the country, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Friday released the sum of about $265 million to airlines operating in the country, to settle outstanding ticket sales.

A breakdown of the figure indicates that the sum of $230 million was released as a special FX intervention while another sum of $35 million was released through the Retail SMIS auction.

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.

Information released to journalists reiterated 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 the release of the amount, operators and travellers will now heave huge sighs of relief in terms of running their operations.

Due to their inability to repatriate their ticket sales, Emirates had earlier last week threatened to suspend all flights from Nigeria, effective from 1st September, 2022.

Similarly, there were indications that British Airways was equally considering suspending operations in Nigeria from December 2022 if payment of its trapped funds in the country is not paid.

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