CBN bans sales of forex to BDCs - ITREALMS

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The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has banned the sales of Foreign Exchange (FX) to Bureau De Change (BDCs) operators in the country, reports ITREALMS.

The CBN Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, proclaimed this at the end of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting held in Abuja, the nation's capital on Tuesday.

ITREALMS reports that Emefiele said the apex bank received about 5,000 applications every month for BDC registration, adding that the operators are making efforts to dollarise the Nigerian economy.

He also said BDC operators have become a conduit for illegal financial flows working with corrupt people to conduct money laundering in Nigeria.

“They have turned themselves away from their objectives,” he declared.

“They are now agents that facilitate graft and corruption in the country. We cannot continue with the bad practices that are happening at the BDC market,” Emefiele said.

In addition, he said that there is evidence of prevailing ownership of several BDCs by the same promoters to procure multiple FX from CBN.

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“Several international organisations, embassies patronise BDC through illegal forex dealers to fund their institutions,” he revealed.

Emphasising that CBN will deal ruthlessly with Nigerian banks that deal with illegal BDCs and reiterated readiness of he apex bank to report foreign organisations patronising them.

According to him, CBN would henceforth channel weekly allocations of dollar sales to commercial banks to meet legitimate FX demands, while mandating banks to ensure they sell forex to every customer.

Nenye Dom/Editor

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