The Association of Bureaux De Change Operators of Nigeria has revealed plans for a unified retail end of the foreign currency market.
A statement from the association on Friday disclosed that the move would tackle volatility and boost regulatory compliance within that segment of the market.
ABCON President, Aminu Gwadabe, said ABCON was implementing plans meant to unify operators from different cadres of the market, including the inauguration of state chapters for market coordination, integration, and administering a united market structure.
Gwadebe said that, when done, all BDC operators across Nigerian markets would be captured.
Also, he revealed plans to upgrade its Business Process Platform, formerly called SAAZ Master.
He said, “Part of our vision for a united retail-end forex market includes activating geo-mapping and automated BDCs physical office verification exercise using the Remote Gravity Physical verification apps. This will enable forex buyers to easily locate BDCs offices for effective and seamless transactions.”
He reiterated the benefits of a vibrant retail end forex market to support the Central Bank of Nigeria’s goal of achieving true price discovery for the naira, balancing international obligations and national objectives; ensuring ease of regulation, security agencies monitoring and supervision as well as entrenching market visibility for BDC players.
According to Gwadabe, the vision for a united retail end forex market will help in the provision of market intelligence reports, enhance the local and global image of the BDCs, other stakeholders and market operators, and boost employment generation.
The successful execution of this plan, Gwadabe said, would help in seamlessly capturing revenues for the government through a digitised retail end market and creating a well-structured, transparent, and competitive platform to checkmate the menace of unlicensed platforms.
“With the world going digital, BDC operators under the ABCON leadership are committed to staying ahead of the competition by deploying time-tested technology to deliver effective services to foreign exchange end-users.
“Finally, we also condemned in its entity, the seeming reappearance of illegal economic behaviours in forex conversion and peer-to-peer trading that pose another recent surprise in naira volatility and I therefore want to warn that while surprises are the new normal, resilience is also the new skills,” Gwadebe explained.
Warning his members, the ABCON president, “I can confidently say the apex bank and relevant security agencies are on their oars to ensure the feat of naira appreciation continues and will deal with any saboteurs. It is, therefore, in our interest to desist from hoarding and speculation, as it is a bubble and will burst in no distance time.”
This comes weeks after the association expressed support for the CBN directive barring the practice of using domiciliary accounts as collateral for naira loans.
Olaitan Ibrahim