The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has approved the sale of $20,000 to each eligible Bureau De Change Operator at the rate of 1,450/$ to meet the demand for invisible transactions.
This rate represents the lower band of the trading rate quoted at the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market yesterday.
According to a circular released today, and signed by A.A Mahdi, Acting Director Trade and Exchange Department, the sale was in a bid to correct “observed continuous distortions in the retail end of the market, which is feeding into the parallel end and further widening the exchange rate premium.”
The circular further stated that the BDCs were only allowed to sell to eligible end-users at not more than a 1.5 percent rate higher than the purchase rate from the CBN.
Read also:CBN excludes BDC operators from $122.67 million sales Gwadabe
“All eligible BDCs are directed to make the Naira payment to the listed CBN Naira deposit account numbers and submit confirmation of payment with necessary documents for disbursement at the appropriate CBN branches,” the circular stated.
Last week, the CBN intervened in the foreign exchange market by selling the sum of $122.67 million to 46 authorised dealers to promote stability and reduce market volatility.
However, Aminu Gwadebe, the president of the Association of Bureau De Change Operators of Nigeria revealed that BDC Operators had been excluded in the latest tranche of forex sales by the CBN to authorised dealers.
“The BDC window has been suspended by the Central Bank of Nigeria since around March or so. The last time we were funded was around March,” he stated in an earlier interview.
