Bureaux de Change (BDCs) operators yesterday rejected Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN’s) directive that operators make at least three dollar purchases weekly or be sanctioned.
The apex had also threatened to punish banks that fail to instantly sell foreign exchange (forex) to eligible travelers and boost dollar liquidity in the market.
The new CBN’s moves followed last week’s depreciation of the naira against dollar, which saw the local currency closing at N366/$1 at the parallel market on Friday from N361/$1 sustained in nearly one year. The naira remained flat at the parallel market trading at N364/$1 for the first three trading sessions in last week before losing one naira on Thursday and Friday respectively to close the week at N366/$1 despite $310 million injected into the interbank foreign exchange market by the CBN.
But when contacted, the Association of Bureaux De Change Operators of Nigeria (ABCON) rejected CBN’s mandatory dollar purchase order to BDCs. The group rather, asked the regulator to review BDC’s dollar purchasing rate to align with rate commercial banks’ buying rate.
ABCON President, Aminu Gwadabe, said in a statement that CBN’s directive on BDCs should be put on hold. He said: “The CBN’s directive at this time of our operational difficulties is no doubt precarious and vague and was intended to emasculate a sector that has helped the system to stabilize and thus unacceptable”.
The CBN had directed in a statement signed by its Acting Director, Corporate Communications, Isaac Okorafor, that: “All BDCs shall henceforth access forex from the CBN on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. It is compulsory that all BDCs access forex at least three times weekly. Any BDC that fails to access the forex window at least three times weekly shall have its licence reviewed by the CBN”.
The CBN’s goal, Okorafor said, is to ensure that eligible travelers are able to access foreign exchange for the Business Travel Allowances (BTA), Personal Travel Allowances (PTA), school fees payment and medical bills payment. It is also in line with its plan to deepen foreign exchange liquidity available in the market.