The Association of Bureaux De Change Operators of Nigeria (ABCON) has said it fully supports recent measures of the Central  Bank of Nigeria (CBN)  to check money laundering, and other malpractices in the foreign exchange market.

Recently, the CBN announced some measures to check money laundering tendencies observed in the foreign exchange market. These include the ban on importation of foreign currencies, and suspension of 20 BDCs for not rendering returns and non-compliance with anti-money laundering regulations.

Commenting on these developments, Acting President, Alhaji Aminu Gwadabe, said that the measures  by the CBN was in line with the position of the ABCON on  compliance with regulatory requirements.

“The Association has a zero-tolerance stance when it comes to the issue of compliance with regulatory requirements, especially rendition on returns as well as compliance with approved limits for foreign exchange transactions. We have made it clearly known to our members that we would not hesitate to impose sanctions or report to the CBN, any member found guilty of not complying with these requirements. So we are fully in support of the actions of the CBN.  Such action  was necessary to ensure sanity in the foreign exchange market, and most importantly the stability of the naira, which is critical to our economy.”

The ABCON president said that most of the 3000 licensed BDCs in the country,  conducted their businesses  in compliance with the requirements of the CBN, and that only very few were  exceptions, adding that the actions of these few ones however, were capable of creating negative impression about the BDC subsector, and also undermines the stability of the naira.

“Any BDC that is not playing by the rules, is a threat to the business of other operators, and also to the foreign exchange market as a whole. Such BDC have become a cancer to the system and they should be treated as such”, he said.

“That is why ABCON  has put in place measures to ensure its members fully comply with the regulatory requirements”, he added.

For example, the Association introduced compliance officers into its National Executive Council and Zonal Executive council. Last year, it gave new cars to compliance officers around the country, to assist them to go round on inspection visits to BDCs. Also last year, the ABCON held sensitisation seminars on rendition of returns. The seminars were held in all the geo-political zones of the country, and were massively attended by BDCs.

Gwadabe said the Association would hold another round of such seminar this year. He said, in addition to this,  the Association would consider measures to strengthen its monitoring activities to keep members on their toes.