Bureau De Change Operators Agree To Sell Dollar At N745, Disagree On Buy Rate

The black market seems to be aligned on the exchange rate to sell dollars to the public, but there’s a disparity in the rate to buy the foreign currency from traders and individuals.

In the parallel market, demand and supply determine the exchange rate between the dollar and the naira – unlike the official market which has been stated not to reflect market realities – causing the foreign exchange rate to vary among Bureau De Change centers.

During a conversation with Prime Business Africa (PBA) on Thursday, Bureau De Change operators told this publication that the dollar rate is N745/$1, indicating a surprising sync in the black market. 

This is in contrast to the dollar rate obtained by Prime Business Africa on Wednesday, as the BDC operators had informed that the public can buy one dollar from the black market at N745 to N750. 

With the Bureau De Change operators now sourcing their foreign exchange directly from the public, since the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) suspended forex sales to them in July 2021, traders and individuals have also been making a premium from selling their dollar to the BDCs. 

The BDC operators told this publication that the exchange rate to buy the dollar from the public is between N720/$1 to N740/$1 as of December 29, 2022.

Thursday’s exchange rate was in contrast to the N725/$1 to N730/$1 exchange rate offered by the Bureau De Change operators on Wednesday to buy the United States currency from the public.

Speaking on the BDCs buying forex, the President of the Association of Bureaux De Change Operators of Nigeria (ABCON), Aminu Gwadabe, had stated that, “BDCs are licensed to provide retail FX services, including buying from the public and also selling to end-users for allowable transactions, namely personal travel allowance, business travel allowance, payment of medical and school fees.”

Meanwhile, in the official market on Wednesday, the exchange rate was N461.33, in contrast to the N456.50/$1 reported on December 23, 2022 before the Christmas break of Monday and Tuesday. Traders transacted $196.06 million worth of forex on December 28, 2022.