PeakNews Online
Abuja, Nigeria – The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has commenced the sale of dollars to eligible Bureau De Change (BDC) operators at the rate of N1450 per dollar.
This announcement was made in a statement issued by the acting director of the Trade and Exchange Department at the CBN, A.A. Mahdi, on Thursday.
This development follows the apex bank’s recent sale of $123 million to authorized dealers, a transaction from which BDC operators were reportedly excluded. According to Aminu Gwadebe, President of the Association of Bureau De Change Operators of Nigeria (ABCON), only banks benefited from the previous forex intervention.
In its latest action, the CBN approved the sale of foreign exchange to eligible BDC operators to address the demand for invisible transactions. Each BDC is to receive $20,000 at the rate of N1450 per dollar, which is the lower band of the trading rate at the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEX) from the previous trading day.
The CBN justified this move as part of ongoing reforms in the foreign exchange market, noting that it has observed persistent distortions at the retail end, which are exacerbating discrepancies in the parallel market and widening the exchange rate premium.
