Hoarding Spurs Naira Fall: BDC President Urges Paradigm Shift for Increased Forex Liquidity

The Bureau De Change operators have attributed the persistent decrease in the Naira value against the United States Dollar to hoarding by some Nigerians looking to better manage the usual uncertainty in the local currency exchange rates.

Aminu Gwadabe, National President of the Association of Bureau De Change Operators of Nigeria, said the foreign exchange market needs more liquidity, saying the $2.2 billion injected by the African Import-Export Bank was not enough to stimulate the market.

“The $2.2bn Afrexim bank crude prepayment facility is a welcome development but I don’t think it’s enough to stimulate the market considering the situation because if we put $2.2bn into the market, we have been seeing demand in the I&E window alone ranging from $150m to $250m daily so, in 10 days, the $2.2billion will be exhausted. Speculators will speculate and we will run it out between 10 to 15 days.”

He, however, called for a paradigm shift in the supply of dollars into the FX market, He said, “we need to have a paradigm shift in terms of supply, it’s very important and should be immediate. We have been talking about diaspora remittances and as of last year, we recorded over $ 20bn US dollars.

“The market is willing buyers and sellers but, we need to separate operation and ownership because if we say an IMSO should be the one to initiate and terminate a transaction then hope for transparency in the transaction will be defeated.

“We, hereby, advise that the CBN review their 2020 circular whereby they have agreed or stated that the BDC should be an agent of the International Money Transfer Transaction so that we can now separate operation and ownership and with that, it won’t be the person that initiates the fund as the owner will be the one terminating the fund to the ultimate beneficiary.”