Tony Chukwunyem 
Bureau De Change (BDC) operators in the country, whose licenses were revoked by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Friday have criticised the apex bank’s action. Some of the BDC operators, who spoke with Sunday Telegraph on condition of anonymity, as they said they were still discussing how to respond to the development, criticised the CBN’s action as being too drastic and not in line with the extant guidelines for BDCs’ operations.
In announcing that it had revoked the operational licenses of 4,173 BDCs on Friday, the CBN, in a press release signed by its Ag. Director, Corporate Communications, Mrs Hakama Sidi Ali, said the licenses were revoked because the BDCs failed to observe regulatory provisions, such as payment of all necessary fees, including licence renewal, within the stipulate period in line with the guidelines, rendition of returns in line with the guidelines, compliance with guidelines, directives and circulars of the CBN, particularly anti-Money Laundering (AML), Countering the Financing of Terrorism (CFT) and Counter-Proliferation Financing (CPF) regulations.
However, one of the affected operators told Sunday Telegraph that the sanctions for the infractions cited by the CBN, according to the extant guidelines for the sub- sector, did not include revocation of licenses.
The operator said: “What usually happens if you fail to pay the necessary fees within the stipulated period or you did not render your returns, is that either your license is suspended or you will be asked to pay a fine. This is the first time that the CBN will be revoking licenses of BDCs that failed to renew their licenses or did not render returns. “For instance, when Charles Soludo was Gov- ernor of the CBN, he only suspended the licenses of BDCs that flouted regula- tory provisions.”
The BDC operator also stated that in his own case, while he was not in arrears with regard to the renewal of his license, he and many other operators could not render returns in October last year because of the network issues with the platform which the CBN was aware of.
He said: “Despite the fact that the CBN stopped selling dollars to us in July 2021, many of us did not stop renewing our licenses. The only chal- lenge I had with rendition of returns was when the platform had issues in October.
So, it is not fair that my license was revoked.” Other BDC operators who criticized the CBN’s action alleged that a BDC, which has not renewed its license was not among those whose licenses were revoked.
They further alleged that a BDC that closed shop, owing to the death of its founder, was not affected by the CBN’s action. Some of the operators accused the CBN of having a pre-conceived agenda regarding the BDCs that should be spared and those that should be taken out of the system.
“We know their (CBN) agenda has always been to reduce the number of BDCs. So, the revocation of our licenses is not a complete surprise to us. However, the CBN will soon realise that it has made a mistake because the Naira, which was al- ready strengthening on the parallel market started to decline as soon as the announcement of the license revocation was made,” one of the operators said.
Interestingly, the operators claimed that BDCs that were each allotted $20,000 by the CBN last Tuesday were yet to receive the cash despite crediting the apex bank’s account. Analysts note that following the revocation of 4,173 licenses by the CBN, the number of BDCs in the country, which stood at 5,690 as of December last year, now stands at about 1,517.
