Navigating Economic Instability: BDCs Urge CBN for Digital Autonomy

The Association of Bureaux De Change of Nigeria (ABCON) is calling on the Central Bank of Nigeria to give Bureaux De Change (BDCs) digital autonomy to achieve better exchange rate convergence.

The President of ABCON, Aminu Gwadabe who urged the apex bank to release a no-objection approval for the BDCs to go digital on their operation released the statement on Sunday.

He said that the move will help in rate convergence, which will curb volatility in the market and also boost the economy.

He noted that ABCON in the past had led its members to achieve rate convergence in 2006, 2009, 2018, and 2020 before the outbreak of COVID-19.

Aminu said that giving autonomy to BDC operators will lead to a better market rate, which will assist the FG in the implementation of foreign exchange rate policies and make the monitoring of BDC transactions effective.

He said,

• As a proactive organization and an umbrella body of central bank-licensed BDCs and In Line with the CBN planned reforms on BDCs for tech compliance, ABCON started various digitization reforms in 2016 for licenced operators.

• ABCON has invested several millions of naira in IT research, developments, designs, and implementations of various layers of automation for business transformation from manual to digital. Our members now have transaction monitoring systems with installed IT office equipment and internet connections.

• Our members now record their transactions on Amazon Web Services (AWS) online in real-time and extract their daily reports for a return rendition. Operators have also integrated with NIBSS, Bank Verification Number verification and validation platforms.