Nigeria’s Central Bank Revokes Licences Of Over 2900 Bureau De Change Dealers

The number of Bureau de Change (BDC) dealers has been reduced from 5,689 previously approved last year to 2,991 by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

The apex bank on Wednesday published a list of approved BDCs which revealed that the licences of 2,698 BDCs had been revoked.

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.