A Crown Agent, a Bureau De Change (BDC) owner, is under investigation by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for selling dollars below the set rate.
According to FMDQ Securities data, on Tuesday, September 5, 2023, the naira ended at N744.97/$1 at the Investors and Exporters window of the official market.
Since the CBN is worried, the BDC operator must have been selling the foreign exchange for less than N700 per dollar, which is regarded as being excessively cheap.
The CBN’s acting governor, Folashodun Shonubi, revealed the investigation to the media and added that the BDC operator is being looked into for allegedly bringing money into the country illegally and selling it to Nigerians.
He vowed that the apex bank would deal with all erring BDC operators in the country, Punch reports.
His words:
“For the last few weeks, we have been investigating and quite a few players have been bringing in money and selling at less than the official rate. One of those we have investigated recently is Crown Agent.
“We have reason to believe that, we have been working with international agencies on this. We are looking at those who do not follow through the normal system, send it through them, and sell it to Nigerian companies.
“They can expect to hear from us shortly. And they will not be the only ones.”
The move by the CBN to clamp down on BDCs is part of its ongoing effort to ensure stability in the foreign exchange market.
Bureau de Change operation in Nigeria
There are a total of 5,691 CBN-approved BDC operators. Here’s a breakdown of the top 10 states with the highest numbers.
Lagos: 2,958
FCT: 1,179
Kano: 981
Anambra: 259
Kaduna: 55
Abia: 50
Oyo: 32
Enugu: 25
Rivers: 24