The Association of Bureaux De Change Operators of Nigeria (ABCON), has promised to stabilise foreign exchange (Forex) for the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
Alhaji Aminu Gwadabe, the association’s president, said to fulfill the promise, the central bank should consider using the Bureaux De Change operators to end multiple rate practices, which he said would consequently usher in stability in the forex market.
He noted that the CBN’s operational manual defined BDCs as small retail end institutions licensed to carry on the business of selling Personal Travel Allowances, Business Travel Allowances, school fees, and medical bills payment abroad, among other roles, at the criteria retail end of the foreign exchange market.
However, he noted that the various policies of the CBN on the operations of the sub-sector continued to be inhibitive and limit BDCs’ from providing their constitutional roles in the forex market and economy.
Gwadabe called for a collaboration between the BDCs and the CBN in the implementation of market-friendly policies that would make the BDCs’ impact more positively on the market and promote exchange rate stability in the economy.
The ABCON boss said the hasty generalisation that criminalised the BDC sub-sector as responsible for all market crises and infractions like selling dollars with higher premiums above regulatory limits, promoting the loss of confidence in the near and multiplicity of the exchange rates was not in the best interest of the market and 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 multiples exchange rates in the system,” he said.
