‘Direct banks, oil firms to sell forex to BDCs’

The Association of Bureau De Change Operators of Nigeria on Monday called on the Central Bank of Nigeria to as a matter of urgency come up with modalities that would regulate how funds would be sourced from the autonomous window of the foreign exchange market.

The Chairman of the association, Mr. Aminu Gwadabe, told our correspondent in an interview that the need for the release of a framework became imperative due to what he described as the increasing rate of mistrust between the regulator and the operators.

He said banks and oil companies had stopped the sale of foreign exchange to the BDCs because of a directive by the CBN stopping such transactions.

Gwadabe said unless the directive was rescinded by the central bank, it would be difficult for the BDC operators to source for foreign exchange.

The CBN Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, had while announcing the ban of forex sale to the BDCs, said the operators were free to source for foreign exchange from autonomous sources.

But Gwadabe said since the ban was announced two weeks ago, it had been difficult for members of the association to buy forex from autonomous sources as banks and international oil companies had stopped selling.

He said unless the situation was urgently addressed, majority of the over 2,000 BDC operators would shut down their business due to scarcity of foreign exchange.

Gwadabe said, “We want the CBN to as a matter of urgency come up with modalities and framework that will regulate the autonomous sources that they want us to go and access.

“Because there is already a growing mistrust between the operators now and the regulator, which is as a result of lack of information that operators are expecting to hear from them.

“We can’t get forex from anywhere. We cannot buy from the oil companies, we cannot but from the banks, we cannot buy from exporters, and we cannot buy from the CBN. Is it only the few working customers that bring $50 that you buy from?