By Omodele Adigun
The annual turnover of Bureaux de Change (BDCs) in the country has crossed the N1trillion mark just as President of their association , Aminu Gwadabe, has called on the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to enlist them as pay-out agents for remittances. Gwadabe stated these during their virtual Annual General Meeting on Wednesday where issues on opportunities and challenges on the subsector were tackled.
Gwadebe seized the moment to announce the milestone and made some key demands from the Monetary authority.
His words: “As a key player in the BDC industry, ABCON has for decades, made several commitments to ensure that the sector continues to thrive against all odds. We are happy to announce that the licensed BDCS sub sector is commanding N1 trillion annual turnover in the economy.The foreign currencies dealt in by a BDC is derived from private sources and such other sources which may include the CBN window as determined by the CBN from time to time for the purpose of funding Business Travel Allowance (BTA), Personal Travel Allowance (PTA), School Fees Payment Abroad, Medicals, mortgage and subscriptions.”
The BDCs also access dollars from other autonomous sources such as Diaspora Remittances, walk in customers and bank sources.”
Highlighting the challenges faced by his members, Gwadabe listed them as low level formalisation , poor compliance to regulation, complex documentation requirement, inhibitive regulatory policies, lower margins. poor public perception and generalization of criminalization.
On ways out of these constraints, he said: “The CBN should allow investors and Diaspora Remittances’ senders to freely interact with the BDCs bid and offer rates and make the BDCs pay out agents for remittances.ABCON suggests to the CBN to make BDCs Diaspora Remittances Pay Agents.