No withdrawal Of ‘Form A’ Discounted Rate, Says CBN

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The Central Bank of Nigeria(CBN) has denied issuing a policy withdrawal of the “Form A” Discounted rate, with effect from December 31, 2022.
 
Form A, an application form designed by the CBN to pay for service transactions (invisible trade), allows customers to purchase funds at the apex bank or interbank rate to make payments for eligible services such as school fees as predetermined by the foreign exchange manual.
 
In a statement on Wednesday, the Director of the Corporate Communications Department, Osita Nwanisobi, said CBN did not issue such a policy.
 
He also alerted concerned parents and students to disregard any such advisory to pay up as much portion of their outstanding fees as possible, through Flywire, before December 31, 2022.
 
According to him, there are speculations in some media circles suggesting that the payments of overseas tuition fees from Nigeria will cost more, from January 2023 due to the purported withdrawal.
 
The reports are false and the purported advisory is misleading and speculative, Nwanisobi stated.
 
He noted that the bank’s position had followed reports in certain media, quoting a tertiary institution in the United Kingdom as claiming that Nigeria had withdrawn the CBN “Form A discounted rate” to encourage more funds to remain within the Nigerian economy.
 
The advisory from the school purportedly urged new and returning students from Nigeria “to take advantage of the Central Bank Form A discounted rate while this is still available,” he pointed out.
 
Nwanisobi, while reminding stakeholders that front-loading (for both visible goods and invisible) was contrary to the provisions of extant regulations, assured the bank would continue to meet all legitimate demands for foreign exchange.
 
He urged all authorised dealers to ensure that payments for tuition outside Nigeria are made no earlier than 30 days before the due date, even as he charged them to put in place measures to forestall abuse.
 
“It will be recalled that a Manchester-based university was purported to have issued an advisory urging students whose tuition was paid from Nigeria to pay up as much portion of their outstanding fees as possible, through Flywire, before December 31, 2022, based on claims that the Central Bank of Nigeria planned to withdraw the “Form A” discounted rate to encourage more funds to remain within the Nigerian economy,” Nwanisobi added.

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