Nigeria central bank to stop direct dollars sales to forex bureaus

Nigeria’s central bank governor ,Emefiele Godwin has announced that it would cease its direct sales of dollars to forex bureaus to protect the national currency.

“The bank would henceforth discontinue its sales of foreign exchange to BDCs (bureaux de change). Operators in this segment of the market would now need to source their foreign exchange from autonomous source,” said the governor

“Commercial banks will be allowed to accept foreign currency cash deposits of their customers,” he added.

Nigeria, the largest economy in Africa, has been severely affected by the collapse in oil prices since mid-2014. Oil sales account for 90 per cent of revenues in the country.

“While oil prices plunged below 40 dollars, foreign currency revenues declined to a billion dollars a month”, said Emefiele.

The governor of the bank central explained, demand for foreign exchange has increased which, coupled with rising inflation and slowing growth, melted the foreign exchange reserves.

The bank was under pressure to devalue the Naira. 197 Naira is to a dollar, while on the black market, 250 Naira is to dollar.