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By Chinwendu Obienyi
The Association of Bureaux De Change Operators of Nigeria (ABCON) has appealed to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) toimmediately slash its applicable buying exchange rate as naira’s speedy recovery makes the current rate economically in jurious to them.
ABCON said the N1,251/$ applicable buying exchange rate CBN pegged for BDCs was hurting its members, as the open market rate stands at N1,235/$. The association disclosed this in a letter signed by Aminu Gwadabe, ABCON president, to the CBN director, trade and exchange department.
On March 25, CBN had announced the second tranche of sales of foreign exchange (FX) to BDC operators at the rate of N1,251/$.
ABCON said this is the first time CBN’s applicable buying exchange rate for the CBN will be higher than the open market rate. “We discovered a worrisome development where many of our members who paid for dollar allocations at N1,251/$ with a margin of 1.5% are yet to receive their disbursement. This is happening in the face of prevailing open market rate of N1,235/$ which is lower than the authorised applicable exchange rate by the CBN to the BDCs,” the group said.
ABCON said it forecast naira will continue to appreciate further across FX markets with the increasing sources of foreign exchange inflows aided by CBN policies.
Also, the association said its forecasts in the ongoing market development indicate a willingness of the market to correct itself with realistic price discovery.
“It is in view of the above market developments that we write to appeal to your good selves for a readjustments and review downwards of our funding rate of the last tranche (2nd bidding) from N1,251/$ further down to reflect current market rate discovery,” ABCON said.
“This became imperative as it is only the consideration of the readjustment downward that will enable our members to upload their holding positions.”
