Dollar Naira exchange rate: Bureau De Change operators speak as EFCC increase clampdown on hubs, commission give reason why

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Di Nigeria goment don continue dia raid on Bureau De Change, BDC, operations for various parts of di kontri as part of efforts to help stabilise di naira against di dollar.

Dis raids against di BDC operators on Wednesday happun for Abuja, Lagos, Ibadan, Kano, Enugu, Aba, and Port Harcourt.

Officers of di Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) wey wear plain clothes arrest plenty BDC pipo and di accuse be say na dem dey do wuru-wuru wey dey make di value of di naira against di dollar to dey drop.

For Enugu State, EFCC and CBN personnel swoop in suddenly on di BDC pipo for Asata area.

Dem carry dia moto block di two roads leading to di area, and dis cause commotion as pipo begin run helter-skelter.

BBC reporter wey witness di operation tok say e last pass four hours before di law enforcement pipo comot with some BDC operators wey dem arrest.

Same tin happun for Port Harcourt, di capital of Rivers State, for South-South Nigeria, wia one BDC operator, Muhammed Dari, confamm to BBC Pidgin say EFCC bin arrest pipo on Wednesday.

Di raid happun for Hotel Presidential area wia BDC operators dey stay, along di Aba-Port Harcourt expressway, by Rumuola.

According to Dari, “no bi mata of registration, dem arrest both di pipo wey register and di ones wey no register”.

Dari no gree give details of how di raid take happun dia, but e tok say normal activities don resume as at Thursday morning.

For Kano, di commercial nerve centre for Northern Nigeria, na di same format of plain-cloth EFCC officials wey carry out di arrests on Wednesday.

One BDC operator for Kano wey witness di raid tell BBC Pidgin say: “Dis raid no be di solution. Our pipo na just commission agents. E go beta make dem tackle di problem through good monetary policies.”

Mohammed Mustapha Naira, wey bi di Public Relations Officer of di BDC association for Wuse Zone 4, Abuja, tell BBC Pidgin say di raids by EFCC “na welcome development”.

“For inside dis market, we get many saboteurs, na dem dey bring us bad name,” Naira tok.

“Dem plenty for here, dem no dey registered and dem no get licence, na dem dey do business with yahoo-yahoo pipo. So we happy as di EFCC come help us to clean up di place.”

Oga Naira tok say dem don close di Wuse Zone 4 plaza for now, make dem do meeting and agree on how dia business go take dey waka going forward.

“By di time we go reopen di plaza, anybody wey no get ID card to show say im be registered and licensed operator, we no go allow am for our market again,” im tok.

According to am, no be dem wey be BDC operators dey make naira dey devalue.

“Di control of price na di responsibility of di gomen. Di ordinary BDC person, im work na to just buy and sell dollar, how e wan take make di price go up or down?” oga Naira ask.

“Di BDC pipo dey dia just to make dia daily bread, no be to carry dollar up or down.”

Dele Oyewale, tok tok pesin for EFCC tell BBC for phone interview say dem set up a “special task force across di kontri to make sure say foreign exchange transactions dey sanitised and dem dey do am for legitimate way without wuru-wuru”.

“We set up dis special task force to check di dollarisation of di economy and di mutilation of our currency and to enforce di rules and regulations wey dey govern foreign exchange transactions for Nigeria,” Oyewale tok.

“We want make we sanitize di sector and remove di unlicensed pipo wey dey involve for foreign exchange transaction, make we get a saner foreign exchange market.

We no stop legitimate, licensed BDC operators and we no go stop dem.” E tok.

Also, some unconfirmed reports say goment dey chook eye for some online crypto and forex platforms wey dem accuse say follow dey manipulate di naira and cause instability.

According to reports, platforms wey dey affected include Binance, OctaFX, Coinbase, FXTM, Kraken and odas.

On Wednesday some pipo post on X say dem no fit access di Binance website.

Binance, wey be di biggest crypto platform for di world, bin send mail give dia Nigerian users to tok say dem dey aware say users dey find am difficult to access dia website.

However, one crypto trader tell BBC Pidgin say di Binance app still open for im phone on Thursday morning, but di website no dey gree open.

According to reports, more dan half of di adult population for Nigeria dey trade cryptocurrency everi month, and anoda survey wey dem do for South Africa for 2023 show say Nigeria get di most population of pipo wey sabi cryptocurrency.

Muhammad Inuwa Aliyu, wey be cryptocurrency expert for Nigeria, tell BBC say about 18 million Nigeria pipo get account for Binance, so to ban am no go be di best solution for goment.

“Goment suppose to discuss wit di company on steps wey dem go follow so that to avoid pipo wey dey use di platform for currency speculation,” im tok.

E neva clear how much effect dis raids on BDCs and oda measures don get so far on di trade of di naira against di dollar.

As at Thursday, di rate for black market na N1,875 to one dollar for person wey wan buy, and N1,865 for person wey wan sell, according to Muhammed Dari for Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

For Abuja, Mohammed Mustapha Naira tok say dem no dey open for business today as dem still dey try sanitise dia association, but one BDC operator wey follow BBC Pidgin tok, say im dey sell for N1,880 and im dey buy at N1,860.

On di Binance app, di dollar sell rate na around N1,796, and di buy rate na between N1,789 and N1,790, but di rate dey fluctuate up and down.

Dis na slight improvement from di rate on Wednesday wen di naira exchange for as low as N1,900 to di dollar for most BDCs across di kontri.

For di official dollar rate, according to di CBN website on Thursday, February 22, 2024, to sell na N1,489.396 for one dollar, and to buy na N1,488.896.