Naira Closes N282 After Cbn Stops Fx Sales To Bdcs

BEVERLY HILLS, January 11, (THEWILL) – The Naira on Monday depreciated significantly against the Dollar after the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) stopped foreign exchange (FX) sale to Bureau De Change (BDC) operators.

The apex bank discontinued its sales of FX to BDCs, saying operators in this segment of the market would now need to source their FX from autonomous source.

Consequently, the naira lost N4 or 1.44 percent each at the BDC segment of the FX market and parallel market.

After trading on Monday, the local currency closed at N282/$ at the BDC segment compared with N278/$ traded earlier before the CBN's announcement. It closed at N284/$ on Monday as against N280/$ earlier in the same day at the parallel market.

At the inter-bank market, it weakened against the dollar by N0.27k or 0.14 percent as it closed N198.67k/$ yesterday from N198.40k/$ on Friday last week, according to data from FMDQ.

However, the BDC operators said the CBN should review downward their caution deposit from N35 million to N5 million.

Aminu Gwadabe, Acting President, Association of Bureau De Change Operators of Nigeria (ABCON), said last night that the CBN's new FX rule would impact negatively on BDCs, saying there would job and revenue losses, exchange rate would go high, leading to Naira devaluation and high inflation, among others.

“CBN should not blame licensed BDCs for dwindling fortune of Naira. It should allow banks to sell Dollar to BDCs to bridge forex gap,” Gwadabe said adding that the association would convene a meeting and come out with its position on the new development.

The CBN noted that it would deploy more resources to monitoring these sources to ensure that no operator was in violation of its anti-money laundering laws.

Story by David Oputah