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Fri, Mar

BDCs Can End Multiple Exchange Rates - ABCON President

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The President, the Association of Bureaux De Change Operators of Nigeria (ABCON), Alhaji Aminu Gwadabe, has encouraged the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), to use the Bureaux De Change (BDCs) operators to end multiple rate practices so as to bring in stability in the foreign market. Gwadabe while speaking at the weekend in Lagos, said CBN’s operational manual authorises BDCs (who are small retail end institutions licensed) to carry on the business of selling Personal Travel Allowance (PTA), Business Travel Allowance (BTA), school fees and medical bills payment abroad, among other roles, at the retail end of the foreign exchange market. He however noted that the various policies of the CBN on the operations of the sub-sector continued to be inhibitive and limiting BDCs’ from providing their constitutional roles in the forex market and economy. The ABCON president called for collaboration between the BDC’s and the CBN in the implementation of market-friendly policies that will make the BDCs impact more positively in the market and promoting exchange rate stability in the economy.

“It is in view of this disturbing situation and the need to strengthen BDCs value chain as obtainable in organised climes that we urge the regulators and policymakers to consider BDCs as the most potent tool in liberalising the foreign exchange market and stopping multiple exchange rates in the system,” he said.

He explained that the BDCs had, since 2006, provided policymakers with a window in achieving their mandate of exchange rate stability and price equilibrium. He therefore called for the reintegration of the BDCs into the forex market ecosystem to sustain their roles in the economy.

Gwadabe said the BDCs had, for years, remained effective and creative in contributing to the forex market.

While sighting an example, he added that, the introduction of the Investors & Exports FX window in 2017 was as a result of agitations from stakeholders like ABCON, foreign investors and Nigerians in the diaspora who advocated for it to allow more dollar inflows into the economy to boost foreign reserves and raise confidence in the naira by addressing widening rate premiums.

“In order to address the challenges facing the forex market, now is the time to integrate BDCs into the market activities as agent of stabilisation and delivering the market to the promised land,” he added.

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