The Central Bank of Nigeria has informed the public that it has put in place monitoring measures to guarantee that deposit money banks meet clients’ lawful foreign exchange needs.
This was disclosed by Osita Nwanisobi, the apex bank’s acting Director in Charge of Corporate Communications, in a statement released by the bank on Monday.
Nwanisobi informed the press on Monday that the CBN has put in place a monitoring system to ensure the smooth supply of currency to clients who backed up their requests with appropriate paperwork. He went on to say that the CBN had obtained assurances from the banks, via their CEOs, that clients with genuine requests would not be turned away.
He also shot off claims that the CBN was planning to convert currency in clients’ domiciliary accounts into naira in order to address a perceived scarcity of dollars. He emphasized that individuals making such claims were criminal speculators whose objective was to cause panic in the foreign exchange market.
He, however, advised domiciliary account holders and other members of the banking public to carry on with their lawful FX transactions and ignore fabricated reports aimed at putting them against the central bank and causing havoc in the system.
What you should know
- CBN Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, at last week’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting announced that the apex bank would stop the weekly sale of foreign exchange to Bureau De Change (BDC) operators, accusing them of engaging in illegal activities and money laundering.
- In a subsequent action, the stopped the licensing of new Bureau De Change (BDC) operators and further processing of BDC application for forex across the country.
- The CBN went further to direct Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) to set up teller points in designated branches for the sale of foreign exchange to meet legitimate forex requests of their customers.
- In complying with the CBN’s directive, deposit money banks in the country swiftly moved to set up teller points within their banking halls to attend to the forex needs of customers.
- In reaction to the ban, the Association of Bureaux De Change Operators of Nigeria (ABCON) assured members of the public that Bureaux De Change (BDCs) were still providing foreign exchange services.
- In an article published a few days ago, Nairametrics spoke with some financial analysts to assess the likely impact of this unanticipated action from the CBN.
