There was uneasy calm in Abuja’s Bureau de Change (BDC) hub in Wuse Zone 4, following the presence of gun-toting policemen in the area on Thursday.
Chairman of Bureau de change Market Abuja, Alhaji Abdullahi Dauran, had in an interview on Wednesday, said the market would be closed on Thursday till further notice.
He attributed the decision to close the market to the rise in dollar price at the parallel market and said the market will be reopened when the foreign exchange regime at the black market is negotiated.
On Thursday morning, traders arrived at market to find the presence of police detachments stationed at strategic locations, with others patrolling the area, to ensure compliance with the order.
Dalhatu Umar, a BDC operator in Abuja, in an interview with 21st CENTURY CHRONICLE, said they were disturbed about the harassment by the police, adding that he and others like him were only out in search of daily bread.
BDC operators in Kano State, were also reported to have closed their shops over the scarcity of dollars in the country.
Fact Check News quoted a BDC operator in Kano, Nura Usman, to have said the dollar is getting extremely expensive following the federal government’s decision not to release the currency to them.
“The closure of operations will happen in Abuja and Kano. I can’t confirm that of Lagos but the two places are certain. These two make the majority of the market in the country, so the impact will be felt,” he said.
Data from FMDQ on Thursday showed that the Naira marginally appreciated to N1455.59/$ from the N1482.57/$ it traded on Wednesday.
Despite the Central Bank of Nigeria’s injection of over $500 million this week to clear the forex backlog and other interventions, the Naira has continued to tumble against the dollar.
On Wednesday, in a move that was perceived to be targeted at shoring up the value of the naira, the CBN released fresh guidelines to commercial banks against foreign currency speculation and hoarding.
Also on Wednesday, the Senate Committee on Banking, Insurance and other Financial Institutions, summoned governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Olayemi Cardoso, over the forex crisis.
The Abuja BDC market was still closed at the time of this report.
