The naira continued its downward trend after exchanging to the dollar at 980/$ at the parallel market on Wednesday.

A week earlier, the naira exchanged to the dollar at 950/$.

Bureau de Change operators who spoke to The PUNCH attributed the fall to scarcity of foreign currency.

A BDC operator, Idris Musa, said, “We bought and sold the naira today at 965/$ and 980/$. The dollar is not even available.”

Another BDC operator, Yusuf Kareem, said, “The dollar was sold for 980 today. We don’t know if it will continue to go up or if it can come down.”

However, on the FMDQ at the Investor & Exporter forex window, the naira appreciated slightly after closing at 770.71/$ on Wednesday from 776.76/$ on Tuesday.

 

The Association of Bureaux De Change Operators of Nigeria, recently, urged the Central Bank of Nigeria to grant Bureaux De Change operators digital autonomy to achieve exchange rate convergence.

In a statement, the President, ABCON Dr. Aminu Gwadabe, called on the apex bank to grant a no objection approval for the BDCs to fully go digital on all their operational correspondences.

Gwadabe said foreign currencies by BDCs were derived from private sources and other sources which may include the CBN window as determined by the CBN any time for the purpose of funding Business Travel Allowance, Personal Travel Allowance, School Fees Payment abroad, Medicals, mortgage, personal home remittances and subscription.

He said ABCON had training compliance officers to ensure they were acquainted with what was required of them, especially on monthly rendition of results and  tracking illicit capital flows through compliance.

According to Gwadabe, BDCs were complying with the rendition of suspicious transactions reports as directed by NFIU, CBN, and EFCC.

He said BDCs were required to comply with all extant rules & regulations prescribed by the CBN, while the CBN closely supervised and monitored their operations.