BDCs to get maximum of $30,000 per week from single bank

Henceforth, Bureau De Change (BDC) operators shall buy foreign exchange (forex) cash from Authorized dealers (banks) to the maximum of $30,000 (Thirty Thousand United States Dollars) per week. A BDC is allowed to nominate its preferred Authorized Dealer and can only buy the said amount from only that bank of its choice in a week.

This is even as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), has directed all Authorized Dealers to stop accessing the Discount Window of the apex bank on the settlement date for government securities’ auctions. The securities refereed to here are CBN bill, Nigerian Treasury Bills and Federal Government of Nigeria Bonds.

The bank said the discount window directive follows observed abuse of access to the CBN Standing Lending Facility (SLF) by Authorized Dealers. SLF is a lending window in which healthy banks are allowed to borrow all the money they want from a central bank.

A separate circular to Bureau De Change operators and banks signed by W.D. Gotring, Assistant Director, Trade and Exchange Department, CBN, available in it’s website on Tuesday stated that the selling rate by the Authorized Dealers(ADs) to BDCs shall be the buying rate from International Money Transfer Operators (IMTO) plus a margin not exceeding 1.5 per cent.

Subject to maximum disbursement of $5,000 per transaction, it further stated that funds purchased by ADs shall be disbursed for the following eligible transactions only: Business Travel Allowance/Personal Travel Allowance; Overseas School fees and Overseas Medical fees.

According to the apex bank, forex cash purchased by BDCs from Authorized Dealers shall be sold to foreign exchange end users at a rate not exceeding two (2) per cent margin above the buying rate. The two per cent margin it said shall be applicable to all funds to be retailed by BDCs regardless of sources of fund.

“All Authorized Dealers shall continue to render weekly returns on sales to BDCs and the BDCs shall also continue to render weekly returns on purchases from ADs as specified in the attached excel format to Trade and Exchange Department, CBN, Abuja. Record shall be maintained for all transactions by the BDCs showing the BVN of the end-user, including endorsement of amount disbursed in the International Passport of the beneficiary,” the circular to The circular to all ADs and BDC operators  read in part.