Teddy Oscar, Abuja
The House of Representatives on Thursday mandated its Committee on Banking and Currency to summon the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, to explain before the House the controversial directive to Bureaux De Change (BDC) operators to raise their operating capital base from N10 million to N35 million.
Subsequently, the House ordered the apex bank to immediately suspend the directive, pending the briefing.
The House, therefore, directed the CBN governor to appear before the Hon. Jones Onyeriri-led House Committee on Banking and Currency.
This was sequel to a motion moved by Hon. Ibrahim Shehu-Gusau, which attracted criticism from the lawmakers, who tagged the CBN directive a “policy somersault”, and called for a “systematic review”.
Leading debates on the motion, Shehu-Gusau stated: “Bureau De Change has provided millions of Nigerians job opportunities. I am worried that the new rule will send many BDC operators out of business. The increments are outrageous against the backdrop that the CBN will also reduce the amount of dollars being issued to BDCs from $50,000 to $15,000 per week.”
Also speaking, Hon. Asita Honourable tagged the CBN directive “super elitist and racist in nature”.
However, speaking in favour of the CBN directive, Hon. Victor Nwokolo likened the move to the 2005 bank recapitalisation.
He said increasing the operating capital base of BDCs will strengthen foreign exchange transactions.
You would recall that CBN had on June 22 released fresh guidelines for BDC operators to raise their operating capital base from N10 million to N35 million.
This, CBN said, is to check persistent depletion in the country’s external reserves and the financing of unauthorised transactions.
In addition, the apex bank stated that all BDCs applying for the new licence would be expected to make an application fee of N100,000; a licensing fee of N1 million and an annual renewal fee of N250,000.
The CBN further announced July 15 as deadline for the new capital base directive to come into force.
