TheCable

The bankers’ committee says commercial banks will no longer charge customers commission on retail foreign exchange transactions.

Retail forex transactions include purchase of forex for personal travel allowance (PTA), business travel allowance (BTA), school fees and medicals.

Hamda Ambah, chief executive officer of the FSDH Merchant Bank Limited, told journalists that the decision was reached after the committee’s meeting on Tuesday.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had directed commercial banks to make forex available for BTA, tuition and medical fees at not more than N360/$ in a bid to reduce the pressure on the naira.

“One of the things we discussed was a measure that would provide some sort of palliative for all individuals in the country to at least enjoy the benefit,” Ambah said.

“It was agreed that the forex that banks sell to their clients for PTA, BTA, school fees and medical bills, that henceforth all banks should charge N360/$ and there would be no commission whatsoever charged by the banks for such sales.

“We want to make sure that this is uniform across all banks. Customers should report any bank that goes outside of this. It has actually been N360 for a while, but some banks in addition to the fee, are charging commissions.”

Ahmed Abdullahi, director, banking supervision at the CBN, said the current value of the country’s external reserves is $42 billion, higher than $40.4 billion in December.

The last time the reserves hit $42 billion was in December 2013.