Civil Liberty Organisation (CLO) has called on the Federal Government and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to restructure the Bureau De Changes (BDCs) in line with international best practices.
The call is coming on the heels of raging battles within the foreign exchange (FX) market, especially as it concerns the BDCs and the CBN.
Restructuring the BDCs, the organisation said, will encourage innovation, creativity and discipline within their operations.
The CBN last week discontinued its sales of FX to BDCs and directed operators to source their FX from autonomous source.
“It is our belief that the BDCs were originally reconfigured in 2005, to legitimise and control the operations of the black market. But that original objectives have since been defeated, as the black market for FX still thrives while the BDCs have metamorphosed into another tier for the dispensing of the nation’s FX largesse after the banks,” Igho Akeregha, president of CLO, said at a media briefing in Lagos, Monday.
According to Akeregha, the CLO believes that Nigeria has suffered adversely and will continue to suffer as a result of the unholy operations of the BDCs in the way they were structured before the policy of discontinuing the vile allocation of foreign currencies to them.
The CLO insisted that the strong-arm tactics and politicking currently going on within the FX market must not be allowed to succeed.
The organisation challenged the Federal Government to prioritise the cache of the nation’s FX receipts to optimise its use and support the most productive sectors of the economy, which at this time is needed to reverse the economic crisis facing the nation.
One of the demands made by the CLO was that the BDCs must be encouraged to creatively seek other sources to serve as their stock, and that the CBN must plug all the leakages and have a hands-on approach to stem further devaluation of the naira.
“President Buhari must stand with the people on this. This is where his firmness is needed most to insist that the nation be protected so that we stop mortgaging the future of the unborn generation on the altar of some cabals that have presently cornered that sector of the economy to our collective deprivation,” Akeregha said.
