The Association of Bureaux De Change Operators of Nigeria President, Aminu Gwadabe, has said BDC operators now sell US dollars at N1,020/$ while they buy at N980/$.
This was disclosed by Gwadabe in a live appearance on Channels’ Business Incorporated program on Tuesday.
According to him, the appreciation of the naira has gone faster than expected and he commends the Central Bank as well as the President for this.
He said that the parallel market would be lower than the official window for the first time in 15 years, as a result of the current exchange rate.
“For the first time in history over the past 15 years, the open market is lower than the CBN’s rate.
“What you’re seeing now is to show, what happened before has no economic fundamentals. It’s just a bubble, and the bubble has burst,” Gwadabe said.
Gwadabe noted that the unification of the exchange rate had brought convergence, leading to a single market.
He added that the closure of FCY’s collateral has led to a lot of people dumping dollars and that the opening of the sale of diesel and jet fuel at the Dangote refinery has also relieved the pressure on dollar demand from oil companies.
Gwadabe stresses that the CBN must recognise the BDCs as agents for IMTOs as it will recalibrate diaspora remittance flows.
He said, “BDCs can act as a last mile for IMTOs, bringing in $15-20 billion to the FX market annually.”
The naira hit a record high in 7 months of 1,000 per US dollar at the parallel market on Tuesday, a great turnaround for a currency that had almost hit 2,000/$ last two months.
