CBN Boosts BDCs…Makes $10,000 Midweek Intervention
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in its bid to sustain supply of liquidity to the foreign exchange market, has decided to make a special intervention in the Bureau de Change (BDC) segment of the market on Thursday, April 6, 2017.
Disclosing this in Abuja, the Acting Director of Corporate Communications at the CBN, Isaac Okorafor, said the special intervention of $10,000 for BDCs was meant to meet the upsurge in the forex requests of low-end customers, which has been on the sudden increase in the past few days.
According to him, the special intervention does not in any way contradict the Bank’s newly amended sale policy of selling not more than $10,000 only to BDCs once a week. He further explained that the intervention arose due to the increasing demand for forex by Nigerians to address other legitimate needs.
Meanwhile, the CBN spokesman also disclosed to newsmen that the CBN is collating retail requests from authorized dealers upon which sale would be finalized.
The CBN has recently put in place mechanism for monitoring and sanctioning banks and bureau de change that engage unwholesome practices and the hoarding of foreign currencies. Some customers seeking to buy forex for BTA, PTA, medical and school fees are being frustrated by some banks with the false claim that the CBN is not allocating enough forex to them for BTA, PTA, Tuition and Medical fees. The Central bank insisted that all banks have more than enough stock of forex in their possession for the purpose of meeting genuine customers’ demand.
On a weekly basis, the CBN has been selling at least $80m to banks for onward sale to their customers for these invisible items. Members of the public seeking to buy forex for have ben advised to go to their banks and obtain their forex.
The spokesperson of CBN, Isaac Okorafor urged legitimate customers to insist on the current prescribed rate of the foreign exchange. Isaac said: “Any customer who is not attended to within 24 hours for BTA/PTA or 48 hours for tuition and medical fees should call 07002255226 or send an email to [email protected], with the name and branch of the non-cooperating bank.”
