Customers Stranded As BDCs In Abuja, Kano, Lagos Shutdown Over Dollar Spike

Bureau de Change Operators, under the Association of Bureau de Change Operators of Nigeria have shutdown operations over the surge in the price of the dollar.

Members under the Abuja Bureau de Change Association who operate in Zone, 4, a hub for black market foreign exchange have also shutdown operations

Major areas for sourcing foreign exchange in Abuja such as the Zone 4 Plaza, Musawa Plaza, Bulama House, Fabdal Plaza and Baura House are all closed for business when THE WHISTLER visited the FX hub.

The shutdown will last only a day, February 1, 2024, and normal activities will resume on Friday if the market responds positively to the action, senior officials who do not want to be named said.

THE WHISTLER observed that the association’s taskforce were all out to ensure compliance and arrest BDC operators selling or buying forex on Thursday.

Customers who were eager to buy or sell dollars were sent back by the union’s taskforce.

The move by the association is linked to the spike in the dollar, which closed around N1,520 at the BDC segment on Wednesday.

At the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market, the naira fell around N1,480, from the N900 which it was in December, 2023.

“The dollar is on the rise today, and every Nigerian is blaming the BDC operators. They said we are responsible. So, we want to show our innocence using this action,” one of the operators said.

The dollar lost about a huge per cent of its value in 2023 after the Central Bank of Nigeria introduced a managed float.

The naira fell from around N720 per dollar at the BDC segment to over N1200 by the end of 2023.

The CBN blames speculators for the depreciation of the naira.

“We want to see if the naira will appreciate. But if the government cannot help the situation, then who are we as middlemen? So, we can’t guarantee the condition of the naira but we are not pleased with the way things are going, ” a top official of the Wuse Bureau de Change Association (under the Abuja Bureau de Change Association) who was not authorised to speak told THE WHISTLER.

BDC operators in Lagos and Kano are also on shutdown over the foreign exchange crisis.

Another top official said, “We decided to take this action because we want to show the government our concern and that we have no hands in the rise in dollar.”

On Wednesday, the CBN issued a riot act on foreign exchange market operations in Nigeria.

The apex bank issued a new circular on reporting foreign currency exposure to all banks to curb forex speculation and risk mitigation.

The apex bank has insisted that naira is largely undervalued.