The Central Bank of Nigeria has further reduced the amount of dollars it sells to bureau de change operators in the country by $25,000 per week. It had slashed it from $100,000 to $75,000 on March 18 this year.

A CBN memo to all authorized dealers and bureau de change operators dated July 4, 2012 said the amount of weekly foreign exchange sales to BDCs has been reviewed.

Consequently, “the maximum amount of foreign exchange cash sales to each BDC per week shall be $50,000 with effect from Monday July 9, 2012,” a statement signed by the CBN Director, Trade and Exchange department, Batari Musa, said.

The circular supersedes the one dated March 15, 2012 on the subject, he said.

Last year, the bank had increased to $1 million from $500,000 per bank the amount of autonomous foreign exchange banks could sell to BDCs per week, from $250,000.

The Central Bank of Nigeria sold $251 million at a foreign currency auction yesterday, bringing its total sales this week to $601 million compared with $700 million the previous week. Oil-producing companies that sell dollars around the month-end to meet local expenses are the second major supplier after the bank.

Seun: When the supply of the dollar reduces, what happens to the price? It goes up. So the dollar appreciates, and the naira must fall.

kiyosaki1: The BDC operators are killing our economy. Was ounce interested in the business, and was alarmed at the amount of fraud going on in this sector.[b]The BDC operator must bring documents backing his demand to the CBN I.e for you to buy dollars from them its either you have a company that needs to imports goods and services,or raw materials for its production or you are a student or traveling out of the country and needs BTA. [/b]So what do these BDC guys do they simply

Maleeq:
Thats not entirely true. They are registered as BDC. This alleviates them of the need to produce all such requirements. Like other financial institutions, they have a minimum security deposit when the apex bank. This is surety enough for the apex bank. They are still bound by limits/rules, such as this weekly transaction figure.

@Topic
I don't know much about economics, but i surely know the naira is on a down fall against the dollar. No wonder the aboki was asking for ₦168/$ just the other day!

Maleeq:
Thats not entirely true. They are registered as BDC. This alleviates them of the need to produce all such requirements. Like other financial institutions, they have a minimum security deposit when the apex bank. This is surety enough for the apex bank. They are still bound by limits/rules, such as this weekly transaction figure.

@Topic
I don't know much about economics, but i surely know the naira is on a down fall against the dollar. No wonder the aboki was asking for ₦168/$ just the other day!

kiyosaki1: The BDC operators are killing our economy. Was ounce interested in the business, and was alarmed at the amount of fraud going on in this sector.The BDC operator must bring documents backing his demand to the CBN I.e for you to buy dollars from them its either you have a company that needs to imports goods and services,or raw materials for its production or you are a student or traveling out of the country and needs BTA. So what do these BDC guys do they simply

faithin9ja:


this a free society, government has no right to tell me what to do with my money or my dollars, I exchange my naira for dollars, if I like I 'smoke' the dollars.

BDC job is to provide FX to those that want it, it not the BDC job to ask you what you want to do with you dollars you have bought from them. You cannot blame the BDC.

If the government decides to go back to the totalitarian centralist control that has failed in the past, then the government to should place restrictions on what you can use for dollars for; we have our own schools so no need for school fees abroad, we have Aba factories so no need to import shoes, we have cassava bread, so no need to import wheat, and so and so forth. But these policies have never worked in the past. But it's not the BDC's fault.

Billyonaire: Its understandable, but its done to tackle money laundering, those Facrooks at ABJ buy a lot of dollars to send abroad, so we got to stop them. The gain surpasses the disadvantages.

faithin9ja:


this a free society, government has no right to tell me what to do with my money or my dollars, I exchange my naira for dollars, if I like I 'smoke' the dollars.

BDC job is to provide FX to those that want it, it not the BDC job to ask you what you want to do with you dollars you have bought from them. You cannot blame the BDC.

If the government decides to go back to the totalitarian centralist control that has failed in the past, then the government to should place restrictions on what you can use for dollars for; we have our own schools so no need for school fees abroad, we have Aba factories so no need to import shoes, we have cassava bread, so no need to import wheat, and so and so forth. But these policies have never worked in the past. But it's not the BDC's fault.

Pukkah:

There is no 'free market' anywhere. Government has to exercise some form of control on the direction of the economy. If markets would be perfectly free then what is the essence of government?

faithin9ja:

Young man try to think outside the confines of this 'closed Nigerian society'. Because we rely almost totally on oil for our FX, hence the government via Central Bank can control FX.

If you, Mr Pukkah are based in Lagos or PH and I, Mr Faithin9ja based in Houston Texas, decide to use your IT skills to build a website for me, you do the job online, I pay you $5000 for the job, would you really want the Nigerian government to restrict your access to the $5000? wouldn't you like to go to a bank or BDC and exchange those dollars for the best rate available?

In more economically developed societies the government does not control how much money flows in and out of the country