The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has revised upwards foreign exchange trading margin for Bureau De Change (BDC) operators in the country.
Based on the new margin approved by the apex bank, BDC operators would now buy the United States dollar from the CBN at the rate of N357/$1 and sell at N360, thereby leaving them with a positive margin of N3.00 per dollar sold.
The Acting Director, Corporate Communications Department of the apex bank, Mr. Isaac Okorafor, who confirmed the latest policy measure to journalists in Abuja, said the decision was aimed at giving BDCs a level playing field to enable them compete favourably with other authorized foreign exchange dealers.
He charged the BDC operators to abide by the new guidelines, warning that erring BDCs will be sanctioned in any case of infraction established against them.
It would be recalled that the apex bank had in March last year released a Forex policy under which it directed licensed BDCs to buy forex from it at the exchange rate of N360 to a dollar, and sell to customers at no more than N362/$1.
Then, the apex bank aimed at achieving convergence between the rates at the inter-bank window and that of the BDCs.
With the rates in both windows now virtually converged, the bank has created some sort of level playing field for all operators and sustain the level of liquidity in the forex market.
Meanwhile, the bank on Monday, sold $100 million to dealers in the wholesale dealers while customers in the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and invisibles segments of the market got $55 million, thereby making total supplies to the market to stand at $210 million.
