The President of the Association of Bureau De Change Operators of Nigeria (ABCON), Aminu Gwadebe, revealed that most transfers conducted by the International Money Transfer Operators (IMTOs) are diverted to unofficial markets including some unlicensed online firms.
Recall that the acting CBN Governor, Folashodun Shonubi, had earlier in August attributed the crash of the naira against the dollar and its inability to manage the foreign exchange market to the diversion of diaspora remittances to the unofficial markets including the parallel.
This coincided with the time the naira at the parallel market hit a record low of N955/$1, although it has now dropped to N860/$1 as demand pressure and forex scarcity worsened.
While acknowledging that most of the diaspora remittances are being diverted even outside the parallel market, Gwadebe said People are sending money but the money is not coming through regulated and official channels.
“Can you tell me about Binance that is not in Nigeria, Nigerians are not doing transactions of Binance. These are borderless platforms, they don’t have borders, they don’t have offices, you don’t even know where they are, are they operating in Kenya, South Africa, Nigeria or Ghana.
He said that there are a lot of fintech companies to which these remittances are being diverted, noting that they buy it at very high rates.
“Yes, I know that there are some BDCs that receive diaspora remittances and are not reporting officially. Any Bureau De Change that is doing transactions and refusing to send the returns of its activities is going to be summarily dealt with.
Gwadebe advised the CBN not to limit the BDC business model only to the traditional cash model, but also allow them to evolve under an enabling environment in order to deepen the market
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