A Bureau De Change (BDC) Operator Mr Harrison Owoh, has said that street forex hawking was not good for the image of the country.
Owoh told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday in Lagos that all hawkers of foreign currency should approach the Central Bank Of Nigeria CBN, to make their businesses legitimate.
According to him, some street currency hawkers pretend to be BDC operators in dealing with unsuspecting members of the public.
He said that currency speculation had attained geometric progression because of activities of some street currency hawkers at the parallel market.
Meanwhile, the scarcity of the dollar continued on Wednesday as many currency traders said they did not have foreign currencies to sell.
The dollar was sold at N465, while the Pound Sterling and the Euro closed at N560 and N495, respectively.
At the BDC window, the naira closed at N399 to a dollar, the CBN controlled rate, while the Pound Sterling and the Euro traded at N560 and N490, respectively.
The naira lost 25kobo at the interbank market to close at N305.50 from N305.25 recorded on Tuesday.
It will be recalled that Officials of the Department of State Services (DSS) had raided the offices of some bureaux de change (BDC) in Lagos, and arrested operators selling above the stipulated exchange rate of N385 per dollar.
The DSS operatives visited Hajj Camp and Murtala Muhammed International Airport and closed BDCs selling dollars above the exchange rate of N385 per dollar.
The CBN allows each BDC to buy dollars from Travelex at N381 per dollar and sell to end users at N385 per dollar.
(NAN)
