Nigerian banks have introduced a new requirement mandating consumers seeking foreign exchange to provide evidence of a recent three-year tax clearance certificate (TCC), News About Nigeria reports.
Standard Chartered Bank disclosed this new prerequisite in a recent notification to its customers.
Effective April 1, 2024, customers applying for forex transactions through ‘Form A’ are now required to submit three years of TCC.
This move aims to enhance transparency and compliance with tax regulations in the country.
Other commercial banks, including Fidelity Bank and Stanbic IBTC, have also issued similar circulars to their customers, aligning with this new requirement.
The directive applies to both new and existing Form A applications processed on the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) trade monitoring system, known as TRMS.
Furthermore, the banks stated that all submitted TCCs would undergo verification in collaboration with state tax issuing authorities before the approval of any application.
This verification process is to ensure the authenticity and validity of the tax clearance certificates submitted by customers.
Meanwhile, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has cleared all valid foreign exchange backlogs.
The announcement was made by the bank’s acting director of corporate communications, Mrs. Sidi Ali, in a statement released to journalists on Wednesday.
Ali said that meticulous efforts were undertaken to settle these outstanding transactions.
The CBN’s success in clearing the FX backlog was followed by a notable increase in external reserves, rising by $993 million to $34.11 billion as of March 7, 2024, the highest level in eight months.
This increase was attributed to a surge in remittance payments by Nigerians overseas and higher purchases of local assets, including government debt securities, by foreign investors.
