For failing to meet the July 31, 2014 recapitaisation deadline, operating licences of 766 Bureaux De Change have been revoked by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
The apex bank issued new capitalisation guidelines for the BDCs increasing their capital base from N10 million to N35 million. They were also requested they make a caution deposit of N35 million from $10,000.
It said it was doing so to check the depletion of foreign reserves from unproductive transactions.
However, through a circular of July 7, 2014, CBN warned that BDCs that fail to meet the new guidelines by July 31 would cease to be recognised and funded by the central bank.
On August 15, the bank published a list of 2,442 BDCs that met the new recapitalisation guidelines on its website meaning that the remaining 766 adding that all the BDCs that met the requirement would be engaged as agents by licensed international money transfer operators for inbound and outbound money transfer business in Nigeria.
By the development, 766 out of the total 3,208 BDCs previously licensed registered by the CBN have lost their licences.
Before August 15, CBN said it had applications from 1,417 prospective bureaus de changes awaiting its approval but latest development indicated that they all failed to meet the deadline.
The CBN officials had said that if the central bank had granted them the licences, the country would have 4,625 licensed BDCs operating in the country to which the central bank must sell $50,000 on a weekly basis.
This, they said, would raise CBN’s funding of the BDCs to $12bn per annum. This, they noted, would provide an avenue for the depletion of the nation’s foreign reserves.
The BDC operators’ association had clashed with the CBN over the introduction of the new guidelines.
However, acting National President, Association of Bureau de Change Operators of Nigeria, Alhaji Aminu Gwadabe, argued that dollar sales to the BDCs were not responsible for the depletion of the external reserves, saying the amount sold to the sub-sector was negligible.
