TheCable

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has listed 2,998 confirmed bureau de change (BDC) operators, ahead of the revelation of its new foreign exchange policy.

At its meeting on Tuesday, the bank’s monetary policy committee recommended greater flexibility in the foreign exchange system.

“The foreign exchange market framework, now ready, the MPC voted unanimously to adopt greater flexibility in exchange rate policy to restore the automatic adjustment properties of the exchange rate,” Godwin Emefiele, CBN governor, said after the meeting.

“Consequently, all 9 members voted to hold and introduce greater flexibility in managing the foreign exchange rate. The bank would however, retain a small window for funding critical transactions.

“Details of operation of the market would be released by the bank at an appropriate time.”

As the Nigerian market awaits the “appropriate time” the CBN, which had halted sales of forex to BDCs in January has released a list of verified operators, giving signals to the market.

Announcing the ban of sales to BDCs in  January, Emefiele said the BDCs had risen from 74 in 2005 to 2,786 in 2016, with about 150 new BDC applications coming in every month, with same promoter owning multiple BDC outlets.

At the time, President Muhammadu Buhari accused  CBN directors of using BDCs to short-change the government.

“We found out that some directors of CBN owned bureau de change and when foreign exchange comes, they take it to their bureau de change and give government the change. We had to stop the federal government giving bureau the change,” Buhari had said.

With no plans to devalue the naira, the CBN leaves the financial world anticipating its new forex policy.

Back in January, the apex bank said it was going to refund BDCs’ N35 million mandatory cautionary deposit, leaving them to seek forex from autonomous sources. It is unclear if that is set to change.