BDCs boss urges better security at nation’s gateways to check illegal cash evacuation

• CBN pledges to maintain market liquidity

The Association of Bureau De Change Operators of Nigeria (ABCON) has urged the Federal Government to increase security surveillance at the nation’s airports and land borders to checkmate illegal foreign cash evacuation.

The President of the association, Alhaji Aminu Gwadabe, said at the weekend in Asaba that this has become necessary because the naira was currently a means of exchange in about 15 countries in Africa.

He urged the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to sponsor a bill at the National Assembly for naira convertibility in West Africa, as part of the solutions to full recovery of the naira.

“The CBN should diversify the buffers from oil proceeds to foreign investors inflows and Diaspora remittances,” Gwadabe said.Giving reasons why naira depreciated despite CBN’s intervention, he blamed it on speculators’ onslaught and resistance by the banking industry.According to Gwadabe, the refusal of some banks to sell the invisibles like personal and business travel allowances frustrated naira recovery.

Meanwhile, the CBN yesterday reiterated its determination to sustain the provision of foreign exchange with a view to ensuring liquidity in the market and enhance accessibility and affordability for genuine end users.

The apex bank’s acting Director, Corporate Communications, Mr. Isaac Okorafor, according to the News Agency of Nigeria, said the bank wants to disabuse the notion by market speculators that it wouldn’t be able to sustain its forex intervention.

He said that the bank would again, early this week, inject more foreign exchange into the market, leading to a further weakening of the dollar.“This is in addition to the further increase in the sale of dollars to the Bureau de change operators from 8,000 dollars to 10,000 dollars per week,” he said.

Okorafor warned commercial banks and other dealers to desist from sabotaging the efforts aimed at making life easier for foreign exchange end users.According to Okorafor, the CBN had received complaints from customers over frustrations in getting foreign exchange for invisible items like tuition fee, medicals, personal and basic travel allowance. The bank urged the public to report any bank that failed to meet customers’ needs after due documentation.