The Association of Bureau De Change Operators of Nigeria, ABCON, has called on the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, to implement a ban on non-oil export domiciliary account holders from accessing foreign exchange through the official market. ABCON’s president, Aminu Gwadabe, made this recommendation in a statement released in Lagos on Thursday.
Gwadabe emphasized that restricting non-oil export holders from obtaining FX from the official window would help boost the availability of dollars in the market. This, in turn, would contribute to the growth of the country’s financial reserves and help maintain the Naira’s strength against the dollar.
“We recommend a review of the guidelines on holding currencies in non-oil export accounts to a maximum of 48 hours, taking inspiration from South Africa’s policy on the operations of non-oil exports domiciliary account proceeds,” Gwadabe stated.
Furthermore, ABCON urged the CBN to exclude applicants with significant amounts of funds in their non-oil export proceeds domiciliary accounts from requesting foreign exchange through the NAFEM and NAFEX windows.
Additionally, ABCON called for an update of CBN’s policies and circulars to align with the upcoming reforms in the BDC industry. This move aims to provide assurance and certainty to potential investors in the sector and grant existing stakeholders the right to merge and acquire, meeting the revised financial requirements proposed by ABCON.
It is worth noting that the CBN recently commenced the distribution of an additional $10,000 to each authorized BDC operator at a revised rate of N1,101 per dollar. As of Monday, the Naira continued its upward trend against the dollar for more than four weeks, reaching N1,230.61 per dollar.
