ABUJA – Nigeria’s central bank said on Friday it had revoked the licences of 4,173 exchange bureaus that failed to comply with its guidelines and directives, including rendering returns of transactions and payment of required renewal fees within the due period.
The central bank, which resumed dollar sales to exchange bureaus this week, outlawed street-trading of foreign exchange and raised minimum capital levels for exchange bureaus to at least 2 billion naira ($1.3 million) under new guidelines released on Feb. 23.
The moves are part of broader reforms to Nigeria’s forex market which has been grappling with chronic foreign exchange shortages.
Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) spokesperson Hakama Sidi Ali said the licences of the affected exchange bureaus were also revoked due to non-compliance with anti-money laundering and terrorism finance regulations.
“The CBN is revising the regulatory and supervisory guidelines for Bureau de Change operators. Compliance with the new requirements will be mandatory for all stakeholders in the sector when the revised guidelines become effective,” Sidi Ali said in a central bank statement.
($1 = 1,543.5800 naira)
(Reporting by Elisha Bala-Gbogbo; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)
