President, Association of Bureau De Change Operators of Nigeria (ABCON), Alhaji (Dr) Aminu Gwadabe has said the full participation of Bureaux De Change (BDCs) in the retail segment of the forex exchange market is key to achieving stable, strong and virile exchange rate.
The Naira on Thursday slid to N837.49/$ in the official market while it traded for an all-time low of N1,270/$ at the parallel market due to persistent dollar scarcity and speculative activities of illegal forex dealers.
Gwadabe said the challenges confronting the nation’s forex market and depreciation of the naira require all hands to be on deck, and the BDCs, which are licensed to play at the retail end of the forex market should be fully involved in providing lasting solution to the ongoing volatility in the exchange rate.
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Gwadabe said the continuous depreciation of the naira in both official and parallel markets does not benefit the BDCs and the domestic economy, hence steps should be taken to reverse the trend and strengthen the local currency for maximum impact on the economy.
He said the several measures by the apex bank to bridge exchange rate gaps showed genuine intentions of the regulator to entrench exchange rate stability, but getting the BDCs involved in the solution recipe will bring the desired results of not only a highly liquid market, but stable rates.
He said aside illiquidity in the market, the ABCON is not happy with the unlicensed forex dealers who are at the centre of speculative activities, and attracting negative image to the sub-sector.
He said ABCON can only continue to educate the general public against patronizing the illegal forex dealers because the suspension of the Self-Regulatory Organization status of ABCON makes it difficult for the group to directly sanction the illegal operators.
“We at ABCON advise that BDCs should be allowed to access dollars or diaspora remittances through the autonomous forex windows like allowing operators to receive IMTOs proceeds, carrying out online dollar operations and Point of Sale (PoS) Agency, among others,” he said.
Gwadabe said the Diaspora remittances remain a low hanging fruit for the apex bank and tapping the full potentials would require creating multiple channels of inflows to make it easier for Nigerians in diaspora to send funds home.
