ABUJA – No fewer than 2,660 Bureau De Change operators have met the Central Bank of Nigeria(CBN) new licensing requirement, the apex bank has said.
A list of the qualified operators is contained in a CBN circular published by its Financial Policy and Regulation Department on Wednesday in Abuja.
A review of the list showed that majority of the confirmed BDC operators were based in Lagos, Kano and Abuja.
It would be recalled that the CBN, in June 2014, raised the minimum capital requirement for BDCs from N10 million to N35 million.
It also raised the mandatory caution fee from N10 million to N35 million, bringing the total capitalisation requirement to N70 million.
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The apex bank had also in a statement earlier in the year, said that it observed deficiencies in the operational effectiveness of BDCs, which showed gross violation of its objectives.
It said that the deficiencies included activities of operators whose only interest was profiteering from the foreign exchange market, regardless of prevailing official and interbank rates.
The abuses, it said, resulted in weak and ineffective operational and structural objectives, reckless depletion of the country’s foreign reserves, and large-scale financing of unauthorized transactions with foreign exchange procured from the bank.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the new conditions for the operation of BDCs, is part the efforts of the apex bank to ensure stability of the naira.
In the last few months, the currency has been trading at N197 to a dollar at the inter-bank foreign exchange market. (NAN)
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