The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has revoked the operational licensed of 4,173 Bureau de Change (BDC) operators in the country as the cleansing of the FX market continues under Yemi Cardoso.
There are over five thousand foreign exchange traders in Nigeria.
In a press release Friday signed by Acting Director of Corporate Communications, Mrs. Sidi Ali Hakama, then CBN disclosed that the affected BDCs violated some of the rules guiding their operations, including:
Failure to pay all necessary fees, including licence renewal, within the stipulated period in line with the Guidelines.
Failure to give full details of their returns of their financial reports.
Failure to comply with FX guidelines, directives and circulars of the CBN, particularly Anti-Money Laundering (AML), Countering the Financing of Terrorism (CFT) and Counter-Proliferation Financing (CPF) regulations.
The power to revoke license of BDC is contained in the Bank and Other Financial Institutions Act (BOFIA) 2020, Act No. 5, and the Revised Operational Guidelines for Bureaux De Change 2015 (the Guidelines).
Most of the ridiculous BDC business names we earlier published are affected by the new directive.
Some of BDC operators whose licences were revoked include:
- 2017 BDC LTD
- 2019 BDC LTD
- 2022 BDC LTD
- 360 Exchange LTD
- 404 BDC LTD
- 911 BDC LTD
- ACML BDC LTD
- Account to Account Bureau De Change Limited
- Account to Account BDC LTD
- Acceptance BDC LTD access
The full list is of affected BDCs is available on CBN site.
The apex bank said it is revising the regulatory and supervisory guidelines for Bureau de Change operations in Nigeria.
“Compliance with the new requirements will be mandatory for all stakeholders in the sector when the revised guidelines become effective,” it said.