CBN revokes licences of 4,173 BDC operators

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) says it has revoked the licences of over 4,000 Bureau De Change operators violating operation regulations.

The apex bank “has revoked the licenses of 4,173 Bureaux De Change Operators,” Sidi Ali, Hakama, spokesperson for CBN, announced in a statement on Friday.
The CBN explained that “affected institutions failed to observe its regulations” in their operations.

According to the statement, the regulation includes payment of all necessary fees, including licence renewal, within the stipulated period in line with the guidelines; rendition of returns in line with the guidelines; compliance with guidelines, directives and circulars of the CBN, particularly Anti-Money Laundering (AML); countering the Financing of Terrorism (CFT) and Counter-Proliferation Financing (CPF) regulations.

This comes amid an economic downturn that has seen the Nigerian naira battered in the international market.
In the past weeks, federal authorities clamped down on Bureau De Change operators in a bid to curtail the declining naira.
Similarly, the Nigerian government has blocked Binance and other cryptocurrency platforms on allegations that they are aiding currency speculators and manipulators.

On Thursday, two officials of Binance invited to the country by the Tinubu-led government were detained.