CBN Positions Travelex To Replace Bureaux De Change Operators

The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, is said to be grooming Travelex, a global foreign exchange (forex) dealer, to replace Bureaux De Change operators (BDCs) to retail forex for end users, The Nation gathered.

Travelex is the world’s largest foreign exchange bureau specialized in international payments, bureaux de change and issuing prepaid credit cards for travelers.

In 2000, it bought Thomas Cook’s worldwide forex business for £440 million, expanding significantly its international operations.

Travelex has been opening retail shops at airports and in highbrow areas to enable it meet the rising forex demand, and fill the vacuum created by the CBN’s stoppage of dollar sales to BDCs.

Some of the outlets are in Lagos, Port Harcourt, Kano and Abuja, Travelex said in a statement last September.

The apex bank on Monday, January 11, suspended dollar sales to BDCs to conserve the foreign reserves and protect the naira. The move is also meant to enable the apex bank meet forex demand by domestic importers.

Aminu Gwadabe, Chief Executive Officer, SABIL Bureau De Change Limited, who confirmed the development, said CBN’s desperation to meet dollar demands from banks, government agencies and importers prompted it to give dollar import licence to Travelex.

Gwadabe, who doubles as the President, Association of Bureaux De Change Operators of Nigeria (ABCON) said Travelex has secured approval to open more offices across the country where dollar will be directly sold to banks, government and other end-users in a move to bridge the supply gap in the economy.

But CBN spokesman Ibrahim Mu’azu said Travelex will not take the place of BDCs. He, however, said the CBN’s stoppage of BDCs’ funding will create more room for Travelex to control the retail market space.

He said: “They (Travelex) have been in the market for a long time and will do more retail than before, going forward.”

Gwadabe insisted that although licensed as a wholesale supplier and forex importer into Nigeria, the intention of Travelex is to take over the retail segment of the forex market, where BDCs operate.