The Central Bank of Nigeria banned sale of forex to Bureaux De Change operators (BDC’s) on January 11 instructing them to source for forex from the autonomous market. The Apex bank had blamed the BDC for engaging in arbitrage activities buying dollars from the CBN at N197 only to sell to their customers at N250.
At the time the CBN took this decision, the black market rate was about N270. 25 working days later and on Monday, black market rates closed at about N340 indicating a N70 rise or 26% rise since the ban. This suggest the ban may have caused more harm than good for as it only exacerbated the scarcity situation.