The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has announced that the ban
on sales of foreign exchange (forex) to Bureaux De Change (BDC) operators still
stands, saying that the practice is used to carry out graft and corrupt
tactics.
Godwin Emefiele, CBN governor, announced this after the apex
bank monetary policy committee (MPC) meeting in Abuja on Friday.
CBN had placed the ban in July 2021, explaining that BDC
operators have become a conduit for illegal financial flows working with
corrupt people to conduct money laundering in Nigeria.
Emefiele, at the MPC meeting, said the bank will go after
illegal operators in the forex market, describing their activities as
frustrating CBN’s policy measures towards a stable naira.
He also said forex sold to BDCs sell the currency to
criminals and terrorists to buy arms and ammunition which are used to hurt
Nigerians.
“Nobody ever mentions the rate of Bureau de Change in the
city of London. It really beats my imagination that Nigeria carried on with
this kind of practice that tended to support illegal activities of people who
are involved in graft and corrupt practices,” Emefiele said.
“We have supported the activities of those who illegally buy
foreign exchange from this illegal market, carry them in aircraft out of the
country and go to buy arms and ammunition and bring them into the country to
commit crimes.
“We, the Central Bank, take our country’s dollars and sell
to people to buy arms and ammunition to come and hurt us. That is what we are
saying that people want us to do, we cannot do that any longer.
“The only exchange rate market is the Investors and
Exporters window, which is the market that we expect everybody that wants to
buy or sell dollars should use.
“I am sorry to say, I do not recognise any other market.
We’ve asked ourselves at the CBN, why did we have to wait so long?
“CBN remained the only central bank in the world to dip its
hands into our commonwealth and pack dollars to BDCs all in an effort to
stabilise the exchange rate.
“For me, it’s a wrong decision. It has stopped for good. The
Bank of England, or U.S. Federal Reserves do not sell dollars to BDCs even
though they exist.”
The official exchange rate of a dollar to the naira closed at N412.88/$1 on the investors and exporters (I&E) window on Friday, while on the parallel (black) market the exchange rate closed at N570/$1.
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