Foreign exchange speculators may lose over N100 billion in the next month as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) sustains massive funding for Bureaux De Change (BDC) operators.

President, Association of Bureaux De Change Operators of Nigeria (ABCON), Alhaji Dr. Aminu Gwadabe, made this assertion last Friday in Lagos, saying the CBN is committed to improving funding for over 5,000 BDCs nationwide in a new move to deepen market liquidity and protect the naira against speculators.

He called for the return of normalcy to the market as the ongoing speculative behaviour hampering the market operations and stability will come at a huge loss to speculators.

The ABCON boss linked the continued fall of the naira at the parallel market and Investors’ and Exporters’ (I&E) Forex window to currency speculators hoarding dollars to profit from the currency crisis.

He said the perpetrators are creating an artificial scarcity of the greenback within the market to cause more woes for the local currency.

The naira was on Friday, May 22, exchanging at N485/$1 at the parallel market and N411.25/ $1 at the I&E Forex window.

Gwadabe said the ABCON Management and the CBN-licensed BDCs will fight alongside the regulator to ensure that speculators lose their capital should they persist in the illegal activity.

“The ABCON and CBN have observed with disdain the speculative behaviour currently beclouding the market with the misinformation that the CBN has adopted I&E window as its official rate.

The above information is not true because as operators we still funded our accounts at our normal rates of N393/$ and not the I&E window rates for our operation this Friday,” he said.