The Central Bank of Nigeria has suspended the sale of foreign exchange to Bureaux De Change operators till January 4, 2016.
The suspension, a normal practice in the financial services sector before Christmas and the New Year, is expected to generate some level of forex scarcity during the Yuletide season considering the continued pressure on the naira in recent times.
The CBN sold $10,000 each to 2,088 BDC operators in its weekly forex sale on Wednesday. This means a total of $20.8m (N4.1bn) was sold to the BDC segment during the weekly forex sale.
Forex scarcity, which is causing persistent decline in the nation’s external reserves, has made the CBN to ration dollar supply to the banks, importers, the BDCs and the general public.
About two weeks ago, the CBN cut its weekly forex sale to the BDCs from $30,000 to $10,000 each.
Earlier, the central bank had refused to sell forex to over 1,600 BDCs over the absence of proper documentation. The development made the naira to fall from 241 to 280 at the parallel market in the past few weeks.
On Wednesday, the naira appreciated to 260 against the greenback.
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