BDC Ceases Operations Indefinitely In Abuja over Dollar Scarcity

Bureau De Change (BDC) in Nigeria’s capital Abuja has ceased operations indefinitely as a result of dollar scarcity.

Chairman of the Association, Abdulahi Dauran, told the BBC they decided to show Nigerians that they are concerned by the dollar scarcity, which he blamed on cryptocurrency and online speculators.

According to him, the situation is made worse by speculators such as Binance and Aboki websites and Nigerians hugely rely on them.

The development is coming amid fresh moves by the central bank to stabilize the country’s volatile exchange rate.

The apex bank has ordered banks to sell their excess dollar stock by Thursday.

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While some currency traders who attempted to boycott the order were asked to desist, some defaulters were led away by security operatives who took positions at strategic locations of the Zone 4 market.

We’ll lock this car. No parking, no buying, and no selling today, Mr Aliyu was heard saying to potential customers lurking around.

Similarly, another currency dealer who gave his name as Shinkafi, said they had been warned not to engage in trade due to the rising exchange rates in the country.

Wallahi we have been asked by the Union not to trade. As you can see people are not coming, I don’t know if they will later allow us to sell, Shinkafi told PREMIUM TIMES in an interview.

It was gathered that the enforcement of the directive by the street market currency vendors came about 24 hours after the BDC association’s Chairman, Abdulahi Dauran, announced Wednesday that its members will be shutting down operations to curb the unprecedented depreciation of the naira against the dollar.