CBN Revokes Operational Licences for 4,173 BDCs
After accusing the affected institutions of failing to obey regulatory regulations, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has revoked the licences of 4,173 Bureaux de Change Operators.
Sidi Ali Hakama, the bank’s acting director of corporate communications, made the announcement public on Friday.
The central bank claims this is all a part of their plan to boost trust in the country’s currency market.
Compliance with the new standards would be obligatory for all stakeholders in the sector, as the CBN announced that it is amending the regulatory and supervisory guidelines for Bureau de Change activities in Nigeria. The list of affected BDC operators is published on the CBN’s website.
It claimed that it was acting within its authority under the Bank and Other Financial Institutions Act (BOFIA) 2020, Act No. 5, and the Revised Operational Guidelines for Bureaux de Change 2015 (the Guidelines).
Financial institutions are required to adhere to certain regulations set out by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), such as those pertaining to anti-money laundering (AML), countering the financing of terrorism (CFT), and counter-proliferation financing (CPF). These regulations state that among other things, all required fees, including licence renewal, must be paid within the specified period as outlined in the Guidelines. Additionally, returns must be prepared in accordance with the Guidelines.
News Release: 4,173 BDCs Have Their Operational Licences Rescinded by CBN. Here you can find the list. uPRV8q17XM – https://t.co/pic.twitter.com/EdlnB57mVE
The Nigerian Central Bank (@cenbank) on March 1, 2024
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In certain regions of the country, protests have broken out in response to the high cost of living caused by the elimination of gas subsidies, as well as other issues such as the currency crisis, food inflation, and increasing inflation.
Under President Bola Tinubu’s watch, the foreign exchange window was closed, and the naira has been weakening ever since. The naira hit a record low, dropping from around N700/$1 in May of last year to more than N1500/$1 right now.
Since then, the government has shifted its attention to cryptocurrency websites, using telecom providers to crack down on them.
According to Olayemi Cardoso, governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Binance was a conduit for illegal cryptocurrency transfers on Tuesday.
At the first meeting of the apex bank’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) since he took office in September 2023, Cardoso addressed concerns about what he called “suspicious flows” and “illicit flows” through various crypto platforms (crypto platforms).
“Taking Binance as an example, $26 billion has gone through Binance Nigeria in the past year from individuals and entities that we are unable to properly identify,” he continued.
A coordinated investigation of cryptocurrency exchanges is underway, according to the head of the central bank, with assistance from anti-corruption agencies, law enforcement, and Nuhu Ribadu’s office.
Bayo Onanuga, spokesman for the president, has warned that Binance, a cryptocurrency trading platform, will ruin the Nigerian economy by arbitrary manipulation of the currency rate if it is not prevented.
The country’s economy is in danger of collapse unless we take action against Binance. According to Onanuga, who expressed his dissatisfaction on Wednesday during Channels Television’s Politics Today programme, all they do is determine the rate.
“We are not without our saboteurs. We must examine the impact of Binance on our economy. The authorities took action against Binance because of this. Sitting on their asses on internet, some people are dictating our exchange rate and thus taking over the CBN’s duties.
President Bola Tinubu’s information and strategy adviser, Bayo Onanuga, has called for Nigerians to use the official website of the central bank to transact in foreign exchange rates, stating that the parallel market is illegal.
To get a true picture of Nigeria’s economy, you can’t look at the black market. A black market exists in the parallel market.
This secondary market is a source of income for Nigerians and the media, and I have no idea why. We shouldn’t go there; what is the CBN rate? The dollar was worth around N1600 on Friday.
The so-called parallel market is also seeing a stabilisation of the currency rate, which is necessary for this. The dollar is too central to our economy. Onanuga said that importers are fixing prices based on the exchange rate, which some are doing arbitrarily and others are doing for profit.
He claims that once the CBN manages to stabilise the currency rate, the country’s products prices will return to normal. “Things are going to get better in the next several weeks; they are not going to become worse,” he remarked.