Naira Falls to N525/$1 As CBN Stops Forex Sale to BDCs

Nigeria’s naira has dropped to N525 to a dollar at the parallel market as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) discontinued the sale of foreign exchange (FX) to Bureaux De Change (BDCs) operators in the country.

The local currency, which opened today’s trading at N505/$1, lost N20 or 3.9 percent, according to data on abokiFX.com.

At the importer & exporter (I&E) window, it traded moderately to close at N411.60 per dollar.

On Tuesday, Godwin Emefiele, governor of CBN, announced the discontinuation of forex sales to BDCs.

The CBN governor said BDC operators have become agents of money laundering in Nigeria. According to Emefiele, the CBN would channel weekly allocations of dollar sales to commercial banks to meet legitimate FX demands and mandated banks to sell forex to every customer who meets requirements.

Meanwhile, there might be uncertainties with CBN’s ability to meet the requests of commercial banks. According to the Cable, the apex bank allocates about $20,000 weekly to each BDC operator in the country – amounting to $5.72 billion yearly to the parallel market.

“Commercial banks come with bids of $1.3 billion fortnightly, and CBN cannot provide more than $250 million,” according to its source.

Patsy Nwogu

Reporting on data-driven featured stories and investigations.

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