By Chinwendu Obienyi
In the aftermath of the Monetary Policy Committee ((MPC) meeting, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has said it will commence immediate refund of capital deposits and licensing fees to promoters who have pending Bureaux de Change (BDC) license applications.
In a circular obtained from the CBN’s website on Thursday, the apex bank noted that BDC promoters should forward their requests for refund to the Director, Financial Policy and Regulation Department.
It further mandated all Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) to stop accepting instructions from customers to transfer capital deposits of N35 million to the designated CBN account for the purpose of applying for BDC licenses.
Meanwhile, Nigeria’s Naira which opened yesterday’s trading session at N522 to $1 dropped to N520 per $1 midday at the parallel market. But checks on the CBN’s website revealed that the dollar traded at N410.16 per dollar at the Importer & Export window.
The currency still maintained its N710/Pound Sterling as against N700 at which it traded on Monday with N600/1 Euro as against N590. This is as there are going anxiety that prices of imported goods in Nigeria may experience further hikes in the coming weeks following the recent ban of forex allocation to BDCs in the country.
Although the CBN assured it was committed to meeting geniune forex needs through the banks, many are sceptical about the actualisation. Speaking to Daily Sun via a telephone chat, a fabric dealer at Balogun market in Lagos, Umeh Udunma, explained that Nigeria is a heavily import-dependent economy and it is common knowledge that most of the forex used to finance these import operations are sourced from the parallel market.