The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has taken a significant step in restructuring the Bureau de Change (BDC) sector by reducing the number of approved dealers from 5,689 to 2,991. In a recent publication on Wednesday, the apex bank disclosed that it had revoked the licenses of 2,698 BDCs.
Recall that a similar list was published by the apex bank last year, which approved 5,689 black market dealers.
The number of operators has experienced substantial growth, increasing from 74 in 2005 to 5,689 in 2021.
The suspended CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele, had later prohibited the sale of foreign exchange to BDCs due to concerns of round tripping and involvement in illicit financial activities.
Under the President Bola Tinubu’s administration, recommendations were made to implement key reforms such as increasing the capitalisation requirements for BDC operators and allowing Nigerian banks to act as primary dealers in the forex market.