More trouble for travellers as BDCs hoard dollars

Bureau De Change (BDCs) operators at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport (MMIA) are hoarding dollars, frustrating travellers who need it for their journey out of the country, BusinessDay findings on November 16 show.

“All the licenced money changers today have refused to sell dollars. I did not plan to buy dollars in Travelex because of the strenuous process of getting travel documents and queuing for so long, so I made up my mind to buy from BDCs, only to discover that they have all refused to sell dollars today,” a traveller (name withheld) told BusinessDay.

He told BusinessDay that he had no choice but to queue up in Travelex and hoped he would eventually get dollars to buy.

A visit to the MMIA by BusinessDay showed that all BDCs displayed on their counters that they sell at the rate of N400 to a dollar and buy at the rate of N390 but none of them sold dollars.

However, Travelex retained its rate as N385 to a dollar.

As at 3’pm, the queue in Travellex appeared to have doubled against what it used to be as a result of the influx of travellers who could not buy dollars from BDCs.

A frequent traveller (Name Withheld) last week said that he observed that most of the licenced money changers had sold dollars before now at the rate of N460 to a dollar but after the federal government ordered them to sell at the rate of N400 to a dollar, they all decided not to sell at that rate to travellers, thereby making the money scarce.

Emmanuel Oyebanji a businessman who spoke to BusinessDay on difficulties he had experienced long ago as a result of the high exchange rate, also said the situation is worse for him now that the BDCs have illegally suspended the sales of dollars.

“If my flight number is called and I do not get dollars from Travelex by then, I really wonder what I will do because I am supposed to pay for some of my goods I ordered for in Dubai,” Oyenaji said.

He called on the government to come to the aid of small and medium enterprises, especially those whose businesses are dollar dominated.

“We are squeezed in Nigeria. If things continue like this, we may go out of business. We really need the urgent intervention of government on the foreign exchange scarcity,” he said.

In a bid to force favourable exchange rate for the Naira, the Nigerian government commenced a clampdown on BDCs and black market operators. Last week officials of the State Security Service, SSS, in Lagos and Abuja, arrested dozens of operators in the black market.

The arrests commenced after a meeting between the SSS, officials of Nigeria’s Central Bank, CBN, and leaders of the Bureau De Change in Abuja over the weekend.

At the meeting, held in Abuja, the officials agreed that sharp practices by Bureau De Change operators was a major factor responsible for the value of the Nigerian currency which has gone as high as N480 to a dollar at the black market and the parallel market despite selling below N400 at the official market.

It was agreed to force the bureau de change to buy from willing sellers at N390 or lower and sell to willing buyers at N400 or below.

 

IFEOMA OKEKE