Ahead of the August 29, 2020 resumption of international flights operations as announced by the Federal Government, Bureau De Change (BDC) operators have adopted online real time queuing numbering management system nationwide in preparation for business reopening.
“We have over 95% compliance from over 5,000 registered members in strict compliance to Covid 19 measures,” Aminu Gwadabe, president, Association of Bureau De Change Operators of Nigeria (ABCON), told BusinessDay.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on March 26 suspended foreign exchange sales to the Bureau De Change (BDC) operators until further notice due to the Covid-19 lockdown as requested by the operators.
On April 29, 2020 the CBN said it had made complete arrangements to resume foreign exchange sales to the BDC segment of the market for business travels, personal travels, and other designated retail uses, as soon as international flights resume.
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Gwadabe is very expectant as he said there would be increased liquidity in the most critical retail sector of the foreign exchange market.
“There is no doubt the BDCs resumption will deepen liquidity and stem speculations and hoarding and ultimately true market discovery which Is germane for the CBN unified exchange rate structure,” Gwadabe said.
“On my behalf and the entire BDC operators nation wide we wish to register our support for the CBN announcement on resumption of BDC operations which will enhance sanity in the system.
“ABCON with the BDCs along with relevant stakeholders have already embraced Covid 19 measures for the resumption,” he said.
Meanwhile, the naira strengthened by N1.00k as the dollar was trading at N476 on the black market on Tuesday morning compared to N477 traded on Monday.
The market has witnessed dollar shortages since early this year as a result of low oil prices, which accounts for about 90 percent of the country’s foreign exchange earnings and low inflows from remittances due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The foreign exchange market opened with an indicative rate of N386.03k per dollar, representing a marginal appreciation of N0.07k when compared with N386.10k opened with on Monday at the Investors and Exporters (I&E) forex window.
Naira appreciated marginally by 0.06 percent as the dollar was quoted at N385.78 compared to N386.00 quoted on Friday.
Analysts at FSDH research said most participants maintained bids between N380.00 and N390.00 per dollar.
The foreign exchange daily turnover declined further by 30.13 percent to $20.27 million on Monday from $29.01 million recorded on Friday at the I&E window, data from FMDQ revealed.
At the retail bureau, the naira weakened by N1.00k as the dollar was traded at N476 on Monday as against N475 traded since last week.
