CBN Godwin Emefiele

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has banned the sales of foreign exchange (forex) to the Bureau De Change (BDCs) operators throughout the country.

Godwin Emefiele, the governor of the CBN made this known to the public at the Monetary Policy Committee meeting in Abuja on Tuesday.

The apex bank boss said the bank received close to 5,000 applications every month for Bureau De Change registration, emplacing that the operators make efforts to dominate the Nigerian money market.

Emefiele also announced the dissatisfaction of the BDC operations as they encourage and facilitate illegal transaction.

“Several international organisations, embassies patronise BDC through illegal forex dealer to fund their institutions,” he said.

He further warned Nigerian banks to henceforth, cease dealing with BDC as otherwise would attract grave punishment; “We will deal ruthlessly with Nigerian banks that deal with illegal BDCs and we will report foreign organisations patronising them.”

The Monetary Policy Committee also retained the Monetary Policy Rate at 11.5 per cent at the end of the two-day meeting. It also retained the Cash Reserve Ratio and Liquidity Ratio at 27.5 per cent and 30 per cent respectively.