Bureau de Change operators kick off campaign to save Naira, despite logjam with CBN

The Association of Bureaux De Change Operators of Nigeria (ABCON) on Thursday revealed a new campaign plan needed to save the naira from further depreciation and enhance exchange rate stability.

ABCON President, Aminu Gwadabe, unveiled the campaign in Lagos after the National Executive Council meeting of the association.

This is coming 10 months after Godwin Emefiele, Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria announced plans for the discontinuance of foreign currencies sale to Bureaux de Change (BDC) operators.

According to Gwadabe the new strategies will save the local currency, bridge the exchange rate gaps and curb volatility in the forex market.

He added that there was an urgent need to enhance dollar liquidity in the market and ensure the stability of prices in the economy.

He said, “The naira exchanges at N596 to the dollar at the parallel market and N415.83 to dollar at the official market, creating a rate gap of N180.17 per dollar.”

“These steps, we are taking would save the local currency and economy from the impact of election spending that has kept inflation at double digits for a very long time.”

The ABCON boss also disclosed that the depreciation of the naira against global currencies was due to pressure from rising dollar demand without sufficient liquidity to meet the demands from retail end users, manufacturers and other key players in the economy.

Read also: CBN suspends Bureau de Change operations

He called for the creation of BDCs’ Autonomous Foreign Exchange Trading Window (BAFEX) with a determined maximum daily limit for legible BDCs to access dollars from banks, autonomous market and diaspora forex widow at the prevailing market prices.

He said there was an urgent need to review the guidelines on BDC’s Scope of Operations to include participation in payment space, such as agency banking, Point of Sale (PoS) services, inbound and outbound forex transfers, ATM forex services, to reflect global business model practice.

Gwadabe insisted that now was the time to break the current industry monopoly that puts the remittances market in the hands of few players depriving others from tapping into the plan.

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