CBN FX Policy Failure Has Made Naira Useless—ABCON

By Dipo Olowookere

The Association of Bureaux De Change Operators of Nigeria ABCON) has lambasted the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) over its refusal to rescind its decision to stop the sale of foreign exchange (FX) to its members.

Last year, the CBN Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele, after a Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) in Abuja, announced that the apex bank would no longer sell forex to BDCs, accusing them of using the avenue to manipulate the system.

Since the announcement, the value of the Naira to the Dollar at the FX markets have depreciated, selling nearly N600/$1 at the black market, which Mr Emefiele said accounts for about 5 per cent of the market share.

Apparently worried about the current situation of the local currency at the market, the leadership of ABCON said the FX policy of the apex bank has failed, saying it has made the Naira useless at the currency market.

“It is on records that the CBN policy of stoppage of FX sales to BDCs did not only create higher demand pressure but also made the value of our national currency useless,” a part of the statement released by the group on Friday said.

ABCON also raised an allegation of “growing inhuman discriminalisation (sic) of our operations and business by the apex Bank to justify their inhibitive policy summersault,” urging its members to “ignore those unfortunate pronouncements.”

The association asked the central bank to eat the humble pie and carry the group along in “whatever mechanism of dollar supply to the end-users as it is done in other countries instead of a total blanket removal from the market.”

ABCON said it is very glaring for all to see that the commercial banks authorised to sell forex to retail users cannot demands as the “BDCs remain the most potent tool of CBN mandate of foreign exchange rate management” as the “restrictions against BDCs did not make things better. It only made things worse.”

“We the EXCOS are not sleeping on our responsibility to ensure that our members’ business is sustained. We, therefore, call on all our members to continue to ignore the CBN unwanton labelling against us and continue to give us the necessary supports in ensuring normalcy,” it said.