Grant BDCs autonomy to digitise operations —ABCON tells CBN

By Abubakar Yunusa

The Association of Bureaux De Change Operators of Nigeria has called on the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to grant its operators digital autonomy in order to achieve exchange rate convergence.
Exchange rates convergence, according to the CBN, is the evolvement of a single or unified exchange rate system that is consistent with and supported by growth-oriented monetary and fiscal policies.
In a statement Aminu Gwadabe, president of ABCON, urged the apex bank to grant a no-objection approval for the BDCs to fully digitise their operational correspondences.
If granted, he said, this would promote rate convergence, curb volatility in the market, and promote economic growth.
“As a proactive organisation and an umbrella body of CBN, licensed BDCs, and in line with the CBN planned reforms on BDCs for tech compliance, ABCON started various digitisation reforms since 2016 to date for licensed operators,” he said.
Granting digital autonomy to the operators, he said, would lead to a true market rate discovery and enhance the achievement of the federal government’s harmonised foreign exchange rate policies.
He said the policy would also promote effective monitoring of BDCs’ transactions for statutory and regulatory requirements.
He said aside from providing employment for over 40,000 employees within the sector, digital autonomy for operators would pave the way for transparency, accountability and ease of supervision.
Gwadabe said ABCON had led its members to achieve rate convergence in the past.
“ABCON as a custodian of regulation and self regulatory organization believes that the BDCs posed the most effective, transparent pass-through effect, and transmission mechanism of the apex bank foreign exchange policies,” he said.
“We have achieved convergence in 2006, 2009 and 2018 to 2020 before the outbreak of COVID 19 in 2020.
“It is in the light of the above that we are calling on the apex bank to grant a no-objection approval on our various correspondences to the apex bank to grant the sub-sector the autonomy to embrace digital payment to the sub-sector to achieve rate convergence.”