Aminu Gwadebe, president of the Association of Bureau de Change Operators of Nigeria, said very few banks have followed the Central Bank of Nigeria’s order to sell dollars to BDCs.
Gwadebe, who stated this in an exclusive interview with Punch, examined the naira’s strong performance in the parallel market over the previous week.
Earlier, the CBN temporarily allowed Bureau de Change operators to buy foreign currency from the Nigerian Foreign Exchange Market last December. That access was extended until May 30, 2025, in February. Later, the apex bank limited the BDCs’ weekly purchases from a single authorised dealer bank to a maximum of $25,000.
Addressing this, the ABCON president claimed that the instruction had improved market liquidity at the retail level.
Gwadebe added that only a small number of banks were selling to BDCs were selling to BDCs.
He said:
Gwadebe, who noted that the naira strengthened by roughly N100 to 1,552/$ from 1,660/$ in the previous week, opined that one of the issues facing the naira was psychological.
He said,
Gwadebe reiterated that the CBN needs to maintain liquidity in the retail end of the market, saying,
He stated that it has also been successful to make the BDCs one of the most efficient transmission mechanism tools of the central bank’s foreign currency policy.
TimesNow.com.ng earlier reported that to satisfy retail market demand for eligible invisible transactions, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) extended its approval for BDC operators to buy foreign exchange from authorised dealers.
The new deadline is set for May 30th, according to a circular released on Monday by the regulator’s Trade and Exchange Department.
Following an earlier directive, TED/FEM/PUB/FPC/001/030, dated December 19, 2024, which gave current BDCs temporary access to source foreign exchange from the Nigerian Foreign Exchange Market (NFEM), the extension permits BDCs to purchase foreign currency up to a weekly cap of $25,000 per operator. The original directive was set to expire on January 31st.
Proofreading by James, Ojo Adakole, journalist and copy editor at TimesNow.com.ng.
Source: TimesNow.com.ng
