‘Allow us participate in remittances space’ — BDCs laud CBN’s naira 4 dollar policy

March 8, 2021 5:09 pm

The Association of Bureau De Change Operators of Nigeria (ABCON) says the competitive diaspora remittance market introduced by the Central Bank of Nigeria will bring about naira stability.

Aminu Gwadabe, the ABCON president, said there is more to be done for the recent naira for dollar policy to achieve its intended objective of shoring up the value of the naira through liquidity boost.

He said there is the need to break the monopoly of some certain players in the remittances space by allowing the participation of other stakeholders like BDCs in the realm of remittances.

According to him, Kenya, Ghana, South Africa, etc, have all deepened their remittance space through a heavily competitive market space.

The ABCON boss said measures taken by the aforementioned countries have enabled them to achieve volumes, leading to the stability of their local currencies.

He said that the naira for dollar measure was among the many recent strategies deployed by the CBN to attract more diaspora remittances into the official channel and address the foreign exchange liquidity concerns in the market.

“There is no doubt the incentive will be somehow attractive to the targeted beneficiaries of the remittances and therefore aimed to address concerns of one of the principal ally in the chain of remittances,” Gwadabe said.

He said that statistics from the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NiDCOM) suggested that over 17 million Nigerians legally residing in the diaspora remitted over $20 million dollars in 2020 in spite of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“This, therefore, suggests that it is a window, if well-articulated and includes all the principal allies in the remittances space, will help the Nigerian economy for the availability of FX liquidity.”

In a circular dated March 5, 2021, the CBN directed all deposit money banks and international money transfer operators to pay recipients of diaspora remittances N5 for every USD received as remittance inflow.

Jibrin said beneficiaries would get the incentive, whether they collect the remitted dollars as cash across the counter or through their domiciliary accounts.

The scheme will run from March 8 till May 8.