After trading at 980/$ on the parallel market on Wednesday, the naira maintained its downward path. The naira was worth 950 to the dollar a week ago.
The decline was ascribed to a lack of foreign money by Bureau de Change operators. “We bought and sold the naira today at 965/$ and 980/$,” Bureaux De Change (BDC) operator Idris Musa said.
“There is no dollar available.” Yusuf Kareem, another BDC operator, stated, “The dollar was sold for 980 today.” We don’t know if it will continue to rise or if it will fall.”
However, the naira gained marginally on the FMDQ at the Investor & Exporter FX market, ending at 770.71/$ on Wednesday, up from 776.76/$ on Tuesday.
The Association of Bureaux De Change Operators of Nigeria, recently, urged the Central Bank of Nigeria to grant Bureaux De Change operators digital autonomy to achieve exchange rate convergence. In a statement, the President, ABCON Dr. Aminu Gwadabe, called on the apex bank to grant a no objection approval for the BDCs to fully go digital on all their operational correspondences.
According to Gwadabe, BDCs obtain foreign currencies from private and other sources, which may include the CBN window as determined by the CBN at any time, for the purpose of funding Business Travel Allowance, Personal Travel Allowance, School Fees Payment Abroad, Medicals, Mortgage, Personal Home Remittances, and Subscription.
He stated that ABCON had trained compliance personnel to ensure they were aware of what was expected of them, particularly in terms of monthly rendition of results and tracking illegal financial movements through compliance.
According to Gwadabe, BDCs were submitting suspicious transaction notifications as mandated by the NFIU, CBN, and EFCC. He stated that BDCs were expected to follow all existing CBN rules and regulations, and that the CBN constantly oversaw and monitored their activities.
