BDCs decry poor compliance of banks to forex sales

President, Association of Bureau De Change Operators of Nigeria (ABCON), Alhaji Aminu Gwadabe, has decried the poor compliance of banks to the sale of foreign exchange to its members.
Gwadabe said on Tuesday that only about nine per cent of BDCs currently had access to forex sales from banks, a situation he described as “worrisome’’.
According to him, the level of compliance by the Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) is poor and the sale is only to BDCs located within Lagos.
Gwadabe said that available records showed that BDCs operating outside the Lagos metropolis had not benefitted from the sale of forex by the banks.
The ABCON chief said that there was need for the banks to be patriotic at this period of the nation’s economic history by opening their doors to the BDCs in the sale of forex.
“Banks are complaining of liquidity challenges.
“There is need for banks to be patriotic now to ease the challenges in accessing forex,’’ Gwadabe said.
He explained that since banks were out to make profit, any directive that would affect their profit margin would be resisted.
The president said that some of the conditions given by some of the banks were cumbersome, adding that they sold at between N330 and N335 to the dollar.
According to him, so far, the banks have sold about $6 million of forex to the BDCs.
The scarcity of forex in recent times has brought the Naira to its knees.
It was being exchanged at N400 to the dollar at the parallel market, before appreciating to N396 to the dollar.
In a bid to ensure greater flexibility in the foreign exchange market, the CBN issued a circular mandating the DMBs to sell forex from proceeds of the International Money Transfer Agents to BDCs.
Industry watchers believe that a full compliance by the DMBs to dollar sale will pitch the naira on the path to recovery.