BDC operators' president warns against naira speculation, vows unified market

ABCON President, Alhaji Aminu Gwadabe, in a statement on Friday, also said the association would establish a unified retail-end forex market to tackle volatility and boost regulatory compliance among Bureau de Change (BDC) operators.

He said that the strategic plan meant to unify operators from different cadres of the market would include the inauguration of state chapters for market coordination.

This, he noted, was to ensure the integration and administration of a united market structure in the BDC sub-sector.

He added that ABCON would upgrade technology in its quest to help in the fight against the sabotage of CBN’s reforms.

“The new blueprint for a united retail end forex market structure would ensure the deployment of a centralised, democratised and liberalised online real-time trading platform.

“Finally, we also condemned in its entirety the seeming reappearance of illegal economic behaviours in forex conversion and P2P trading that pose another recent surprise in Naira volatility.

“I therefore want to warn that while surprises are the new normal, resilience is also the new skill,” he said.

The ABCON boss said that he was confident that the apex bank and relevant security agencies were adopting all measures to deal with any saboteurs and retain successes recorded on Naira appreciation.

“It is, therefore, in our own interest to desist from hoarding and speculation as it is a bubble and will burst in no distance time,” he added.

Gwadabe said that ABCON would extend its automation policies and platforms to all BDC operators across Nigeria markets and upgrade its Business Process Platform(formerly called SAAZ Master).

Gwadabe said that the association would sustain its engagement with regulatory agencies, security operatives and other government apparatus to entrench a secured and thriving forex market that is supportive of regulation and government.

“Part of our vision for a united retail-end forex market includes activating geo-mapping and automated BDCs physical office verification exercise using the Remote Gravity Physical verification apps.

“This will enable forex buyers to easily locate where BDCs offices are for effective and seamless transactions,” he said.

He reiterated the benefits of a realistic and vibrant retail-end forex market as supporting the Central Bank of Nigeria's (CBN’s) goal of achieving true price discovery for the Naira and balancing international obligations and national objectives.

He listed other benefits to include ensuring ease of regulation, security agencies monitoring and supervision as well as entrenching market visibility for BDC players.

According to Gwadabe, the vision for a united retail-end forex market will help in the provision of market intelligence reports, enhance the local and global image of the BDCs and other stakeholders, and market operators and boost employment generation.

The successful execution of this plan, Gwadabe said, would help in seamlessly capturing revenues for the government through digitised retail-end market.

He explained that it would also create a well-structured, transparent and competitive platform to checkmate the menace of unlicensed platforms like Binance, Aboki FX, and ByBit, among others.

He said that ABCON is a self-regulatory body, an umbrella body for all the Central Bank of Nigeria -CBN-licensed BDCs.

“It is a national body, acknowledged by the Federal Government and believes that money laundering through the BDCs or any other financial institution is unacceptable and those found wanting should be punished based on the law,” he said.

He added that the association had over the years “lived up to its name by protecting the interests of genuine forex dealers and supporting a stronger Naira”.

He said that ABCON had since its inauguration, redefined Nigeria’s BDC sector with technology, capacity building for operators and support for exchange rate stability.

Gwadabe said the overall primary goal of ABCON was to ensure forex availability to the critical retail end of the forex market and bridge the gap between the official and the parallel market exchange rates.

“With the world going digital, BDC operators under the ABCON leadership are committed to staying ahead of the competition by deploying time-tested technology to deliver effective services to foreign exchange end-users,” he said.