Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) are beginning to encourage customers to come to them for their foreign exchange (forex) needs in line with the new Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) directives on forex sales.
In an email to customers, First Bank of Nigeria (FBN) said it has created easy channels for bank customers to get forex for school fees, medical bills, Personal Travel Allowance (PTA) and Business Travel Allowance (BTA).
It added that it had over 260 designated branches for forex sales and the eligibility criteria that customers must meet to access forex.
Findings by the News Agency of Nigeria also indicated that banks were selling one dollar at N412.
It was gathered that Fidelity Bank, Keystone Bank and Zenith Bank branches had created designated teller points for forex transactions.
One of the criteria listed by the banks is that BTA or PTA is only eligible for bank customers travelling out of the country from Nigeria for a trip of fewer than five hours.
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They disclosed that each traveller was entitled to buy $4,000 per quarter for personal travels and $5,000 per quarter for business travels.
Guaranty Trust Bank Plc (GTB) had also informed its customers that it had set up forex teller points for customers and was ready to meet all their forex needs.
Following the suspension of forex sales to Bureau de Change (BDC) operators, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had asked commercial banks to establish teller points for forex services in their branches.
The banks were also asked to adequately publicise the locations of the designated branches and make necessary arrangements to sell forex to customers in cash and/or electronically in compliance with extant regulations.
“Equally, undue delays, rationing and/or diversion of FX is strongly discouraged whilst DMBs are required to establish electronic application and alert systems to update customers on the status of their FX requests,” the Bank Supervision Department, CBN, Haruna Mustafa, had said in a statement.
