The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has said it will henceforth stop the licensing of new Bureau De Change (BDC) operators and further processing of BDC application for forex across the country.
This might not be unconnected with the huge number of applications that the apex bank receives monthly and the reported illegal activities of some of the forex dealers.
This disclosure was made by the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, while reading the communique after the 2-day Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting on Tuesday, July 27, 2021.
Emefiele said that the CBN receives about 574 license applications from BDCs every month adding that there are currently 5,500 licensed BDC operators across the country.
He said that despite the fact that Nigeria is the only country in the world today where a central bank sells dollars directly to BDC operators, operators in the Nigerian Bureau De Change segment have not reciprocated the bank’s gesture to help maintain price stability in that market.
The CBN is not surprising that since the CBN began to sell foreign exchange to Bureau De Change, the number of operators has risen from a mere 74 in 2005 to over 2,700 in 2016 – and almost 5,500 BDCs as of today (July 27, 2021).
Am happy this is happening now. I never hard of government selling forex to black marketers and expect good outcomes. This silly policy was brought to bear on Nigerian economy by misguided PDP government knowing full well that no economy can sustain such policy but because it was the only way they could conceal their ill gotten wealth. A good decision even though coming too late
I personally anticipate this effort!