The Association of Bureaux de Change Operators of Nigeria (ABCON) will today launch its Live Run Automation Portal in Lagos.
The ABCON Automation Live Run project is expected to automate all Bureaux De Change (BDCs) operations with those of Nigeria Inter-bank Settlement System (NIBSS), Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) and Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to improve the level of compliance of BDCs with set regulations.
Speaking to financial journalists ahead of the portal launch, its President, Aminu Gwadabe, said the group had secured CBN’s no-objection approval to launch the Live Run portal.
The approval, he said, reaffirmed the regulator’s commitment to a transparent and viable forex market where stakeholders’ interests are protected.
Gwadabe said the world is going digital, and BDC operators under his leadership are committed to staying ahead of the competition by deploying time-tested technology to deliver effective services to customers.
He said the objective is to make Live Run portal enhance BDCs’ compliance with set regulations and promote market integrity.
According to him, the portal will sustain transparent transactions in the BDC corridor, boost the morale of its members and ensure their continuous operations.
The ABCON chief said the group had fully upgraded its Information Communication and Technology (ICT) platforms to achieve full digitisation of BDCs’ operations in line with its goal of sustaining transparent operation and prompt rendition of weekly returns to regulators. He said the group also recently launched its website to serve as a reliable platform for local and international investors, who will rely on it to access uniform forex rate across states, regions and markets nationally.
According to Gwadabe, “ABCON coordination journey of automation and digitilisation of BDCs’ processes started in 2016 with the launch of our automation platform. The project came with three layers and stages. First layer is on online real time registration of our members with a success rate of over 4,100 BDCs registered nationwide. This layer is to enable our members conduct their membership registration from any of their location without coming physically to ABCON secretariat.
The second layer borders on automation of ABCON’s operational process, book keeping, issuance of receipt, preparation of accounts, balance sheets, ledgers and sales/purchase registers. The most important of this layer is the online real time rendition of returns to regulatory agencies.
Another important feature of this layer is the BDCs on boarding and integration of the Bank Verification Number (BVN) platform on the NIBSS portal for verifications and validation of clients’ BVNs, which is a most vital requirement forex sale.