The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Thursday says it will start an immediate refund of capital deposits to Bureaux de Change (BDC) promoters with pending applications.
The refunds come after the apex bank announced the discontinuation of dollar supply to the segment over allegations of infractions including money laundering. The CBN however said it will channel funds to local banks for onward sales to eligible demand from the public.
Apex bank decision caused a stir in the foreign exchange market as naira slump in the black market from N505 a dollar to N524.
In the circular signed by Ibrahim Tukur for the Director, Financial Policy and Regulation Department of the apex bank, this is in furtherance of the decision to discontinue allocation of Foreign Exchange (FX) to BDC operators.
Tukur urged eligible promoters of BDCs to forward their application for refund in writing to the Director, Financial Policy and Regulation Department of the CBN.
“The requests should be accompanied with the following documents:
“Telex copy of the capital deposit of N35 million; account details for the refund, which should be the same as the account from which the capital deposit originated, including the
Bank name, account name and account number.
“Copy of the bank draft/telex for payment of licensing fee of NI million (if any),” he said.
He advised eligible applicants to submit hard copies of their requests to CBN Head Office, Central in Abuja or the Annex in Lagos while urging commercial banks to stop processing payments for their customers.
“Softcopy of the request in above may be sent in advance of the hard copy to fprdlicensinq@cbn.gov.ng.
“In addition, all Deposit Money Banks are hereby directed to henceforth stop accepting instructions from customers to transfer capital deposit of N35 million to the designated CBN account for the purpose of applying for BDC licences,” he said.
