The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) claims to have settled all verified claims by foreign airlines operating in Nigeria by paying an additional US$64.44 million, bring the total to foreign airlines to US $136.73 million. However, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) responded by acknowledging the latest payment but emphasized that around US $700 million is still outstanding. It does mean that the aggregates recognised by the Bank and the airlines differ. IATA acknowledged the progress that has been made but stressed the that the continuous depreciation of the Naira is posing a great challenge. As we reported yesterday, the Naira reached an historical low of N1348 to the US $ after trading on Monday. In recent months, the CBN has cleared over US $2.5 billion in overdue foreign exchange debts and has released $500 million to different sectors to address the backlog of verified foreign exchange transactions.
