There are reports that currency traders otherwise known as Bureau De Change (BDC) operators have announced the shutdown of operations in Abuja due to the unavailability of dollars.
According to reports, the no sales policy was announced by the Chairman of the association in Abuja, Mallam Abdulahi Dauran, where ne confirmed that the closure of business would take effect from Thursday, February 1, 2024.
Dauran in his statement attributed the development to online business transaction and cryptocurrency.
This is coming barely 24 hours after the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) introduced some new measure to help improve liquidity in the forex market and help banks to avoid foreign exchange losses due to the volatility of the market.
The CBN had also warned lenders against hoarding excess foreign currencies for profit.
According to some officials, the apex bank believes some commercial banks hold long-term foreign exchange positions to enable them to profit from the volatile movements of exchange rates.
The local currency had on Tuesday fallen to an all-time low of N1,482 against the dollar on the official window while it closed at N1470/$1 at the parallel market.
ABCON kicks against the decision
Meanwhile, the President of the Association of Bureau De Change Operators of Nigeria (ABCON), Aminu Gwadebe, in his chat with Nairametrics kicked against the decision, saying that this is not the position of their association.
He said that there are procedures and channels for communicating grievances and not to just wake up one day and announce that you are closing the market.
Gwadebe said, ‘’That one is not our position, its not a professional way of handling things. When you shut market, you shut your leadership, you shut everything. Are you saying you are the ones printing dollars, that when you shut market, the dollar will come down or go up, so what will your shutdown cause to the market?
- ‘’It will only affect you as far as I am concerned, you the individual that is shutting down. Being regulated, there are procedures and channels for communicating your grievances and not to wake up one day and say you are closing the market, you know this is a sovereign market, some of them that say that they are shutting down if you go to their houses or wherever they are doing the business.
- ‘’And imagine what the rates are doing now, the rates came down to about N1410, N1420 in Lagos, so imagine an association has directed you to shut your office and your business is falling like leaves from the tree and you are not there to quickly take decisions for your business, so who is suffering.
- ‘’You see I am happy they call themselves forex traders, we are a licensed association and we have procedure for expressing our agitation, we use the media, we write correspondences to the CBN, we engage security agencies, even the presidency, the National Assembly, all over the place. So we believe constructive engagement is the key to the solution.’’
