The President, Association of Bureau De Change Operators of Nigeria (ABCON), Alhaji Aminu Gwadabe, has accused some banks for refusing to sell dollars for the invisibles, such as personal and business travel allowances thereby complicating the position of the local currency despite the efforts of the Central Bank of Nigeria in flooding the market with dollars.
In an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) today, Saturday, in Lagos, Aminu Gwadabe supported the recent directive by the CBN, asking members of the business community to report any bank which is into sharp practice, for necessary sanction.
He said that it is an ironoy that the naira started losing strength in spite of the CBN’s review of the rates from N375 to N360 to a dollar, adding that the naira started trading on Monday with a promising outlook for sustained strength against the dollar and other currencies, “but it began to somersault at the middle of the week.
“The naira ended deeper northward to close at N394 to a dollar on Friday, translating to 10 per cent depreciation of what was recorded during the week.”
Aminu Gwadabe said that the removal of disparity in applicable exchange rates among the BDCs, Travelex and the banks should have strengthened the nation’s currency.
“CBN’s knack for last minute solution as recent development has shown, accounted for the misfortune of the naira at the foreign exchange market.”
Aminu Gwadabe said that the battle for the soul of the naira would be won if the CBN could boost liquidity to the BDCs for effective unification of rates.
“It is evident that the injection of liquidity to the interbank market rather than the BDC sub-sector is not effective and transparent for sustained FOREX rate convergence and unification.
“Statistics from the CBN shows that about 20 banks get 80 million dollars weekly for invisible transaction as against the 20 million dollars weekly for over 3000 CBN licensed BDCs nationwide.
“The CBN should enhance public awareness to guide end users on FOREX availability and applicable exchange rates.
“The CBN should diversify the buffers from oil proceeds to foreign investors inflows and Diaspora remittances.”
He advised the CBN to sponsor a bill for an act of the National Assembly for naira convertibility in West Africa, as part of the solutions to full recovery of the naira, saying that naira is currently a means of exchange in about 15 countries in Africa.
He called on the Federal Government to increase security surveillance at the nation’s airports and land borders to checkmate illegal foreign cash evacuation.
(NAN). [myad]
