The Association of Bureau De Change Operators of Nigeria has rejected the new recapitalisation guidelines issued by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and demanded a reversal of the same.
According to the new guidelines, there will now be two categories of BDC, tier 1 and tier 2, with tier 1 requiring a minimum capital requirement of N2 billion, N1 million non-refundable application fee and N5 million non-refundable licence fee, while tier 2 will have a minimum capital base of N500 million, N0.25 million non-refundable application fee and N2 million non-refundable licence fee.
However, the BDC operators, at the end of a virtual meeting themed ‘New CBN Regulatory & Supervisory Reforms for BDCs: Challenges and Way Forward’, pointed out that the new guidelines constitute a threat to their businesses.
President of ABCON, Aminu Gwadebe, who read the communique at the end of the meeting, said the operators were demanding among others that the CBN should allow the existing owners of both the eligible and revoked BDCs to recapitalise instead of reapplying.
They also demanded that the existing N35 million capital requirements should be recognised and be part of recapitalisation.
ABCON further demanded an extension of the compliance time to two years, in the spirit of fairness, and that existing BDCs should be allowed to use their generic names as against registration of new names at the CAC.
