The
naira continued on the path of appreciation on the parallel foreign exchange
(FX) market yesterday as it closed at N463 to the dollar, higher than the N467
to the dollar it closed the previous day.
This
development was once more attributed to the appointment of Travelex and
FirstBank Nigeria Limited as the only two institutions responsible for the sale
of the greenback to the Bureau De Change (BDC) sub-sector of the economy.
THISDAY
yesterday reported that following their failure to fully comply with the
directive which requires commercial banks that act as agents of international
money transfer operators to always sell foreign currency remittances to
licensed BDC operators, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) this week relieved 19
other banks of the role.
However,
all the affected banks are expected to sell their dollar inflows from
remittances to Travelex, for onward sale to the BDC. The CBN took the decision
because the returns on forex sales had shown that the affected banks had not
been active in selling the greenback to BDC operators since the directive was
given in July.
The
President of the Association oof Bureau De Change of Nigeria (ABCON), Alhaji
Aminu Gwadabe, welcomed the move by the central bank, saying it would help
strengthen the naira and improve dollar liquidity in the market.
“It will ensure that more dollar are distributed to BDCs in uniform and transparent manner as some of the banks have not been selling funds from the international money transfer operators (IMTOs).
“If
you check, since Travelex started selling to BDCs, speculation has reduced in
the market and the naira is on the path of recovery. My advise to our members
is to partner with the central bank on this project. I advice everybody to be
patriotic, any member that goes against the rule would be punished,” Gwadabe
had said.
Travelex,
a global foreign exchange company, last week began weekly disbursements of
US$15,000 (part of the country’s diaspora remittances) to each of the 3,000
registered Bureaux DeBDC) operators in the country.
Travelex
was officially directed by the CBN to distribute FX to BDC operators following
complaints from BDCs of low supply from the banks.
Nevertheless, on the interbank FX market, the spot rate of the naira remained unchanged at N304.50 to the dollar yesterday.
Source:Thisday
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Business