The Association of Bureau De Change Operators of Nigeria, ABCON, has told the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, to ban non-oil export domiciliary account holders from obtaining foreign exchange through the official market.
ABCON’s president, Aminu Gwadabe, disclosed this in a Thursday Lagos statement.
According to him, preventing non-oil export holders from obtaining FX from the official window would help increase the availability of dollars in the market and contribute to the growth of the country’s financial reserves, thereby sustaining the Naira’s gains against the dollar.
“We, therefore, advise you to review the guidelines on holding currencies on non-oil export accounts to a maximum of 48 hours to borrow from the South African policy on the operations of non-oil exports domiciliary account proceeds.
“The CBN should also not make applicants of huge billions of dollars holding on their non-export oil proceeds Dom accounts eligible for fx request at both the NAFEM and NAFEX window.
“In the same vein, we urge the CBN to upgrade its policies and circulars to legislation regarding the impending new reforms of the BDCs.
“This is to give comfort and guarantees to would-be investors in the transformation of the BDC industry’s sub-sector and allow only the existing stakeholders, the grandfather’s right for merger and acquisition, to meet the expected reviewed financial requirements as suggested by ABCON.”
Recall that CBN began the distribution of another $10,000 to each valid BDC operator at a reviewed rate of N1,101 per dollar.
On Monday, the Naira continued its appreciation against the dollar for over four weeks, which stood at N1,230.61 per dollar.
