By Modupe Gbadeyanka
A tier-2 financial institution in Nigeria, Fidelity Bank Plc, has assured its customers and non-customers of the availability of foreign currencies in all its branches.
The lender gave this assurance in an emailed notification to its customers last week, urging them to use its platform to receive remittances from abroad.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had recently announced that from Friday, December 4, 2020, it would make it possible for beneficiaries of diaspora remittances to receive their funds in Dollar, Pound, Euro or other foreign currencies.
This was part of the monetary authority’s effort to boost forex liquidity in the system and bridge the wide gap of exchange rates in the legal market and the black market.
The Governor of the CBN, Mr Godwin Emefiele, had recently called out the parallel market, describing it as a “shallow market.” He also lambasted financial and economic analysts quoting the rates from the segment in the media.
He further said the black market only accounted for 5 per cent of the market share of the forex market.
“I heard some analysts talking about the parallel market saying that the exchange rate is at N480. I want to say this, it is unfortunate and really unfair that even analysts who are supposed to know will play with numbers and begin to determine the exchange rate of our currency using parallel market rate.
“For the information of everybody, parallel market as far as we know it and the data that we have is a shallow market in Nigeria with no more than 5 per cent of market share.
“Parallel market and quote me is a tainted market in Nigeria, where people who desire to deal in illegal foreign exchange transactions including sourcing of FX cash for purposes of offering bribes, corruption, that is where they deal,” the apex bank chief said.
In the mail sent to its customers, Fidelity Bank said, “Kindly be informed that following the new CBN policy, all international money transfer payments will be made in USD only. This is effective December 04, 2020, in any Fidelity Bank branch nationwide.”
“In view of this, all Fidelity Bank customers and non-customers will be able to walk into a Fidelity Bank branch to receive international money transfer in dollars.
“What’s even better is our Remittance Year-End Reward Scheme is here and you could be a part of it. So, walk into any of our branches for a USD payment today,” the statement sighted by Business Post further said.
