The naira slumped further to 523/$ at the parallel market on Wednesday, a day after the Central Bank of Nigeria stopped the allocation of foreign exchange to Bureau de Change operators in the country.
The naira, which exchanged to the dollar at 503 on Monday, fell to 505 on Tuesday, few hours after the CBN announced it would no longer sell forex to the BDCs and stopped approval of new licences to the operators.
According to naijabdcs.com, the official website of the BDCs, the dollar was bought at N515 and sold at N523 on Wednesday.
At the Investors & Exporters forex window, the naira hit a high of 413/$1 but closed at 411.60/$1.
The CBN, however, maintained the official rate of N410.16/$1 on its website.
Before the new regulation, the CBN had been supplying each BDC $10,000 twice a week at the rate of N393.
After the Monetary Policy Committee meeting on Tuesday, the Governor, CBN, Godwin Emefiele, had accused the BDCs of abusing the privilege given to them and sabotaging efforts to ensure naira stability in the country.
Expressing the displeasure of the MPC, he said, “The facts abound that BDCs have turned themselves into agents that facilitate graft and corrupt activities of people who seek illicit fund flow and money laundering in Nigeria and we will go after all of them.
“Throughout this meeting of the MPC, we extensively debated this matter, and independently with each member of the committee exhibited accurate and deep understanding of issue at stake.
“After these exhaustive and extensive deliberations, the management of the Central Bank with the support of the committee reached the following decisions which will take the following effect. Hence, the CBN will henceforth discontinue the sale of foreign exchange to BDC operators.”
Emefiele added that the CBN would henceforth channel significant portion of its weekly allocation currently meant for BDCs to commercial banks, to meet legitimate forex demand for ordinary Nigerians and businesses, whether for small-scale imports, medical bills, educational expenditure, personal and business travels or any other legitimate needs as prescribed by the CBN’s foreign exchange manual.
He said by this, all commercial banks in the country would with immediate effect create a designated teller point in designated branches, for sale and disbursement of foreign exchange to customers who deserve forex for legitimate purposes.
He said, “For emphasis, the public should note that once a customer provides the basic documentation to provide forex, all banks must immediately pay that on demand or within a stipulated time frame sell foreign exchange to the customer.
“Any customer who does not receive foreign exchange must report this to their bank and where they are unsatisfied with the resolution, they are required to contact the CBN on our toll free line 07002255226 or email cpd@cbn.gov.ng to lodge the complaint with details of the bank’s transactions.”
