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The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has increased the amount of foreign exchange that Bureaux De Change (BDCs) can access from $30,000 to $50, 000 per week.
Speaking in Abuja on Tuesday, Directors of CBN and some Managing Directors of Deposit Money Banks who briefed journalists explained that the decision was to make more foreign exchange available to members of the public, especially as students were to return to school
The Managing Director of United Bank for Africa UBA, Mr. Kennedy Uzokam, said: “As you all know the issue of making foreign exchange available to Nigerians has been very topical and the CBN has been working hard to address this.
“About two weeks ago, a policy was released that made banks to sell monies to BDCs and BDCs are supposed to pass these monies to Nigerians to meet various needs.
“At the meeting today (Tuesday) and as expected, we got feedback from the market and the CBN being a responsive regulator has decided to move the limit from $30,000 per BDC to $50, 000. We believe that this development will make more cash available to the BDCs and increase the supply and this will help to drive down the price.”
Also speaking on the development, Peter Amangbo, Managing Director of Zenith Bank, in his address, told journalists that in keeping with the coming celebration of World Savings Day, all banks in Nigeria will break into different groups to cover all the Local Government Areas in the country to sensitize those at the grassroots on the need for people to save massively.
Also speaking on the development, Peter Amangbo, Managing Director of Zenith Bank, in his address, told journalists that in keeping with the coming celebration of World Savings Day, all banks in Nigeria will break into different groups to cover all the Local Government Areas in the country to sensitize those at the grassroots on the need for people to save massively.
He said: “The sensitization of the grassroots by all banks is to grow the pool of funds available for lending and the need to save.
“There will always be disparity in savings and interest rate stressing that the gap is not as wide as people think it is and the longer people save the more interest they will earn.
“There are lots of accounts that can be opened with minimal documentation. You don’t need brick and mortar branches anymore because mobile apps are now game changers as a result there is no need to have beaches in Local Government Areas (LGAs).
The CBN’s director of Banking Supervision, Mrs Tokunbo Martins disclosed that a decision was taken at the end of the bankers’ committee meeting to start disbursing the special intervention fund to support primary agricultural projects and core manufacturing.
This special intervention fund she said will be “for projects that support import substitution, projects that will help protect foreign exchange such that whatever we were importing before can be manufactured.”
“This fund will be released to this kind of projects, it will not be released to any kind of project and once these funds are released there will be some ease on the system and there will be more liquidity so important projects will get financing at a lower single digit interest rate.”
“This fund will be released to this kind of projects, it will not be released to any kind of project and once these funds are released there will be some ease on the system and there will be more liquidity so important projects will get financing at a lower single digit interest rate.”
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