There is a lot one can do with forex these days, especially when you consider how scarce it is. With forex you can hedge against inflation, pay for your imports, travel on holidays, pay for things online, buy favours etc. For some banks, forex is also a new form of punishment for borrowers.
A Skye Bank publication in the Punch today, requested that its debt defaulters pay up within 7 days. But it did not stop there. The bank went on to threaten defaulters that if they do not pay up they will be excluded from the foreign exchange market. See below;
This is obviously another example of how the CBN jealously guards forex in Nigeria. Some critics in fact believe this is probably why they are hesitant to let go of the control of the exchange rate. A scare “commodity” cannot be left in the hands of many and can in fact be regarded as an important discretionary tool in the hands of the CBN for granting favours, punishing critics and as you can see threaten loan defaulters.
