Naira-Dollar Notes

By Tanko Lami

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has imposed a ban on the street trading of foreign currencies by bureau de change (BDC) operators.

This new directive was announced by CBN’s Director for Risk Management, Blaise Ijebor, during a conference in Lagos on Thursday.

“Street trading of foreign currencies is not allowed,” Mr Ijebor said. “We don’t want BDCs under the trees. They should be in offices. You walk into their office, change your currency and walk away.”

Mr. Ijebor stated that the ban aligns with the CBN’s vision of creating a ‘market structure’ that simplifies regulatory compliance for operators.

Additionally, it allows the central bank to monitor BDC activities more effectively and identify non-compliant operators.

“One of the things we want to do is make BDCs focus on the original conceived vision, which is to provide that market structure for people who need to do small small transactions and do not need to go to the banks to do those transactions,” the CBN director said.

“So we need BDC to come together to form bodies, that way regulation is not too extensive for them. They can receive regulation, apply to regulation, and everything will work better for everybody,” he added.

Last Wednesday, the CBN revoked the licenses of existing BDCs and introduced new guidelines for reapplying for fresh licenses.

The central bank increased the minimum capital requirement for Tier-1 BDC operators from N35 million to N2 billion, set the application fee at N1 million, and the licensing fee at N5 million.

For Tier-2 BDCs, the application fee was set at N250,000, the minimum capital requirement at N500 million, and the licensing fee at N2 million.

As of Sunday morning, the naira traded at N1510 to one dollar in the parallel market, with an official rate of N1479.69, according to Aboki Forex, a platform that publishes naira rates against other currencies.

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