The Association of Bureaux De Change Operators of Nigeria (ABCON), yesterday advised the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) not to bow to the pressure to devalue the naira.
The President of ABCON, Mr. Aminu Gwadade, said this at the association’s sensitization meeting with CEOs and Directors of BDCs in Lagos.
According to him, devaluing the nation’s currency would not be in the interest of Nigerians.
Gwadade said: “Devaluation will not do any good to the economy. As you can see, there is border closure which has led to an improvement in economic activities. But we are still struggling with electricity; in terms of its availability, and also Nigeria still remains an import-dependent country.
“So we are not in support of any attempt to devalue the naira further than N360/$, because as far as BDCs are concerned the exchange rate is N360 to a dollar.
“All those who are saying N305, N306 to a dollar, well, for us this is not the transaction rate, these are rate for government obligations, it is not everybody and how a large percentage of Nigerians that get dollar at N306?
“So if unification is for everybody in the market to be buying at N360, fine and good the BDC already have in that kind of rate happening in the market.
“Yes, the unification of the various exchange is germane, but any discussion on devaluation at a critical level of the economy should be completely discouraged.”
Gwadabe said ABCON would ensure it gives its cooperation to the CBN and the government in general so as to checkmate any volatility in the forex market.
He further said ABCON would continue to comply with the central bank’s regulatory guidelines affecting their operations in the country.
“The aspect of the examination we are comfortable with is, firstly, the submission of our audited accounts that have improved tremendously; a lot of members have now known the implications of not rendering their audited accounts to the CBN and the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) more especially now that the drive of the government is revenue generation.
“So this is one aspect we want to emphasise for members to ensure they belong to the tax net , they comply with the necessary regulation, also we have automated our operations, our members are now on our platform which is www.abcon.ng.org where they render their returns to the CBN from the comfort of their offices, so these are some of the achievements that we have achieved and we felt we have to let the media know so that they help us emphasize some of this achievement apart from the exchange rate stability that we have been making for the past four year,” he added.
Source: THISDAY
