ABCON mulls harmonised retail end forex market for BDCS

The Association of Bureaux De Change Operators of Nigeria (ABCON) is working on establishing a unified retail end foreign exchange market operations to tackle volatility and boost regulatory compliance within the Bureaux De Change (BDC) sub-sector.

ABCON President, Alhaji Aminu Gwadabe, said ABCON was carrying out strategic plans meant to unify operators from different cadres of the market including the inauguration of state chapters for markets coordination, integration and administering a united market structure.

He said that ABCON plans to extend its automation policies and platforms to all BDC operators across Nigerian markets and upgrading its Business Process Platform (formerly called SAAZ Master).

Gwadabe said the new blueprint for a united retail end forex market structure would ensure the deployment of a centralised, democratised and liberalised online real time trading platform.

He stated that the association would sustain its engagement with regulatory agencies, security operatives and other government apparatus to entrench a secured and thriving forex market that is supportive to regulation and government.

“Part of our vision for a united retail-end forex market includes activating geo mapping and automated BDCs physical office verification exercise using the Remote Gravity Physical verification apps. This will enable forex buyers to easily locate where BDCs offices are for effective and seamless transactions,” Gwadabe added.

He reiterated the benefits of a realistic and vibrant retail end forex market as supporting Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) goal of achieving true price discovery for the naira, balancing of international obligations and national objectives; ensuring ease of regulation, security agencies monitoring and supervision as well as entrenching market visibility for BDC players.

According to Gwadabe, the vision for a united retail end forex market would help in the provision of market intelligence reports, enhance the local and global image of the BDCs and other stakeholders, market operators and boost employment generation.

The successful execution of this plan, Gwadabe said, would help in seamlessly capturing revenues for the government through digitised retail end market and creating a well structured, transparent and competitive platform to checkmate the menace of unlicensed platforms like Binance, Aboki FX, ByBit, among others.

He disclosed that ABCON is a self-regulatory body, an umbrella body for all CBN-licenced BDCs.

“It is a national body, acknowledged by the Federal Government and believes that money laundering through the BDCs or any other financial institution is unacceptable and those found wanting should be punished based on the law,” he added.

He said ABCON has structures nationally and across zones of the federation with its national Exco drawn from all regions of the country, for transparency and good coordination and has over the years, lived up to its name by protecting the interests of genuine forex dealers and supporting a stronger naira.

He further said ABCON has since its inauguration redefined Nigeria’s BDC sector with technology, capacity building for operators and support for exchange rate stability.

Gwadabe said the primary goal of ABCON is to ensure forex availability to the critical retail end of the forex market and bridge the gap between the official and the parallel market exchange rates.

“With the world going digital, BDC operators under the ABCON leadership are committed to staying ahead of the competition by deploying time-tested technology to deliver effective services to foreign exchange end-users.”

ABCON condemned in its entity, the seemingly reappearance of illegal economic behaviours in forex conversion and peer-to-peer services (P2P) trading that pose new surprises in naira volatility.

Gwadabe warned that while surprises are the new normal, resilience is also the new skill.

“I can confidently say that the apex bank and relevant security agencies are committed to ensuring that naira continues to appreciate and will deal with any saboteurs. It is therefore in our own interest to desist from hoarding and speculation as it is a burble and will burst in no distant time,” he warned.