Due to the helplessness of Naira, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has pegged the payment of cash dollar purchase to a customer at $500 saying that the foreign currency (FX) exceeding this amount will be made through a transfer to their Naira bank account. If the customer purchasing the foreign currency is a non-resident, regardless of whether they are Nigerian or not, a Bureau De Change (BDC) will issue them a prepaid Nigerian Naira (NGN) card instead of transferring money to a bank account. The card will serve as a means for non-resident customers to receive their funds. There are specific limits on the amount of credit and the total amount that can be loaded onto the prepaid NGN card. These limits are set in accordance with relevant Know Your Customer (KYC) requirements, which are measures designed to verify the identity and suitability of customers. The CBN stated these in the revised regulatory and supervisory guidelines for bureau de change operations in Nigeria, released on Friday. “The idea is to sanitise that space because a lot of malpractices are going on in the BDC ecosystem,” Muda Yusuf, director/CEO, Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise, said. Yusuf noted that the BDCs are too many and regulating them becomes an issue.
