Travelex begins sale of $15,000 to BDCs today

Travelex, a global foreign exchange dealer, will on Friday (today) disburse the sum of $15,000 to each of the 3,000 registered Bureaux De Change operators in the country.

The President, Association of Bureau De Change Operators of Nigeria, Aminu Gwadabe, said this in a statement on Thursday.

He said with each of the 3,000 BDC operators getting $15,000 each, $45m will flow into the system.

He commended the Central Bank of Nigeria for giving approval to Travelex to commence the disbursement of forex to the firms.

The dollar inflow, being disbursed by Travelex, is part of the country’s Diaspora remittances estimated at $21bn annually.

He said the development, which was an improvement over the initially approved $10,000 weekly, would deepen dollar liquidity in the system and strengthen the naira against the dollar.

Gwadabe said the experience and integrity of Travelex would be key in getting the dollars to the BDC operators.

He urged all ABCON members and other BDC operators to visit the CBN branches in their respective zones for biometric data capturing by Travelex.

Gwadabe said the biometric data capturing would enable the BDC operators to access the International Money Transfer Operators /Travelex dollars window, which would start very soon.

He said, “Remittances have direct positive and significant impact on consumption, investment, and demand in the country as it can be used to address short-run output shocks, and even long-run growth. Remittances tend to be stable and to increase during periods of economic downturns and natural disasters.

“We want to commend the CBN for reaffirming the country’s commitment to building an enabling environment and a level-playing field for international money transfer services to Nigeria. By increasing the number of the IMTOs from three to 14, the CBN under its Governor, Godwin Emefiele, will set the economy on the path of development in the medium to long term and restore integrity in the international money transfer business.”