Bureau De Change Operator,under the banner of The Association of Bureau De Change Operators of Nigeria (ABCON) has Nigeria does not need more than N35m capital base to operate efficiently with profitability.
This development occurs in the context of previous reports indicating that the association had requested the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to raise the current minimum capital requirement for forex traders from N35 million to N350 million.
This information was disclosed in a statement released by Aminu Gwadede, the President of ABCON, in which he emphasized this fact.
Aminu Gwadede maintained that since ABCON does not lend, accept deposits or lend money to customers, N35m capital base is sufficient for the members.
Gwadebe expressed that the requirement for the BDCs is a consolidation achieved by merging operators, rather than strictly focusing on recapitalizing the industry. He highlighted that pursuing recapitalization alone could potentially exclude seasoned professionals and highly experienced operators.
Hear him: ‘’BDC business is not capital intensive as they do not take deposits or lend funds to customers. The operators are licensed to buy and sell forex at the retail end of the market to buyers, who already have their funds ready for the transaction.
‘’What BDCs need is consolidation through mergers of operators and not recapitalization of the industry. Recapitalization may edge out professionals and highly experienced operators whose valued industry knowledge will help stabilise the market.’’
Regarding digitalization and the vision of the new CBN management for data-driven decision-making, Gwadabe mentioned that CBN-licensed BDCs have transformed their operations to ensure that they report digitally through ABCON’s automation portal. These BDCs now document their transactions in real-time on Amazon Web Service (AWS) and extract daily reports for submission.
Gwadebe also mentioned the adverse impact of the continuous depreciation of the naira on BDCs and the domestic economy and complained that liquidity of the forex market is its concern.
As part of measures to stabilize the naira, he recommended that the CBN permit BDCs to access dollars or diaspora remittances through autonomous forex channels, including receiving proceeds from International Money Transfer Operators (IMTOs), conducting online dollar transactions, and acting as Point of Sale (PoS) agents.
