Foreign exchange inflows from International Money Transfer Operators increased by 38.86 per cent to $1.07bn in the first quarter of 2024, from $770.23m recorded in the same period in the previous year.
This disclosure was made in the Central Bank of Nigeria’s quarterly statistical bulletin for the first quarter of 2024, recently published on its website.
The data shows that the IMTOs had inflows of $383.04 million in January, $322.83 million in February, and $363.70 million in March.
The IMTO inflows increased by 10.74% in the final quarter of 2023 compared to the previous quarter.
The apex bank recently said that it has given approvals-in-principle to 14 new IMTOs in an effort to boost the steady supply of foreign currency in the official market.
The CBN Governor, Dr Olayemi Cardoso, said that the recent approval of licenses for 14 IMTOs was expected to improve competition and lower the cost of transactions, thus attracting more remittances through formal channels.
“Let me give some context to this. I’m sure over the years; many of you would have read from the World Bank that Nigeria has significant remittances from the diaspora. We have identified that this is a critical element of inflows coming into the country. It is estimated to represent about six per cent of our GDP. We felt from the Central Bank’s perspective that to have a strategy to engage this sector, the entities that seem to play the biggest role in that sector are the IMTOs and so for us, it was important for us to meet them,” he said at the end of the Monetary Policy Committee meeting in May,” he said.
Additionally, the CBN has declared that foreign exchange can now be sold through the official window by qualified international money transfer operators.
In a circular signed by the acting Director of the Trade and Exchange Department, Dr W.J. Kanya, the apex bank said that the measure, which was effective immediately, would enable IMTOs to access naira liquidity at the official window, thus, enabling the timely settlement of diaspora remittances.
CBN noted, “The bank has implemented measures that will enable eligible International Money Transfer Operators to access NGN liquidity at the CBN window. These measures are aimed at widening access to local currency liquidity for the settlement of diaspora remittances.
“Therefore, eligible IMTO operators will be able to access the CBN window directly or through their authorised dealer banks to execute transactions for the sale of foreign exchange in the market.”
