By Babajide Komolafe
ASSOCIATION of Bureaux De Change Operators of Nigeria (ABCON) has called for the support of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to enhance the operations of its live exchange rate website in order to improve transparency and stability in the nation’s foreign exchange market.
The Association made this call in its Economic Review for the third quarter 2018 (Q3’18) released last week, noting that the daily publication of exchange rate on its naijabdcs.com platform played a huge role in the marginal appreciation of the naira in the bureau de change subsector in Q3’18.
Review the period the report stated: “During the quarter, the CBN sustained its weekly dollar sale of $60,000 per BDC. This coupled with the transparency in the BDC subsector due to live exchange rate publication on ABCON’s exchange rate platform -www.naijabdcs.com, , helped to ensure appreciation of the naira in the BDC segment and relative stability of the naira in the general economy.
“According to the ABCON’s www.naijabdcs.com, the naira appreciated by 50 kobo to N359.5 per dollar in the BDC segment in Q3’18 from N360 per dollar in Q2’18. But the naira depreciated by N2.6 in the Investors and Exchange (I&E) and by 63 kobo in the interbank foreign exchange market. In the I&E, the indicative exchange rate rose to N363.92 per dollar in Q3’18 from N321.32 per dollar in Q2’18.”
To sustain the appreciation of the naira in the BDC segment, ABCON called for a continued promotion of transparency through more operational disclosures.
“The sub sectors will grow faster with the continued promotion of transparency through more operational disclosure. Confidence by multinationals and general public will be enhanced and regulatory functions will be efficient.
The association further stated: “The CBN should collaborate with ABCON, to enhance the operations of the www.naijabdcs.com in order to improve its impact in fostering transparency and stability in the foreign exchange market.”