The Association of Bureaux De Change Operators of Nigeria has warned foreign exchange speculators pushing the naira to forceful depreciation through their illegal activities.
ABCON gave the warning in a statement titled, ‘ABCON warns speculators will lose money as CBN has enough reserves to fund market, defend naira’, on Sunday.
President of ABCON, Alhaji Aminu Gwadabe, said forex speculators were taking huge risks with their funds, as the Central Bank of Nigeria had enough financial muscle to defend the naira and close the widening gaps between official and parallel market rates.
The association noted that the naira had in the last few days depreciated to 480 to the dollar in the parallel market, but had remained stable at 379 to the dollar at the official CBN rate.
According to Gwadabe, with nearly $36bn foreign reserves, the CBN has what it takes to punish the enemies of the economy forcing the naira to depreciate through speculative activities.
He said the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, had continued to take the right steps to achieve exchange rate stability and ensure that foreign exchange was made available to manufacturers and end-users, who needed the funds for their medical trips, school fees payment, travel allowances among others.
According to him, the funding of Bureaux De Change has also helped to deepen the forex market and reduce the level of forex scarcity that always form the basis for speculative activities.
He said that with the CBN having the needed financial strength to fund the market, the rates would soon converge to save the naira.
Gwadabe said exchange rate unification would further narrow the gap between official and parallel market.
He said, “I think that the CBN by pushing the official foreign exchange rate from N306 to N379 to the dollar is in line with market demand.
“It has also helped to narrow the official-parallel market rates gap that formed the basis of ridiculous speculations among unpatriotic forex dealers and spectators.”
Gwadabe advised the Federal Government to enhance security surveillance at the nation’s borders to checkmate illegal foreign currency cash transactions.
He also called for the BDC operators’ liquidity ratios to be raised to discourage dollar holdings.