The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has said it requires sellers of foreign exchange (FX) worth $10,000 or more to Bureau De Change (BDC) operators to declare the source of the forex.
The central bank announced this on Friday in a document titled ‘Revised Regulatory and Supervisory Guidelines for Bureau de Change Operations in Nigeria’.
The CBN also ordered the sellers to “comply with all AML/CFT/CPF regulations as well as foreign exchange laws and regulations”.
Additionally, the CBN stated that customers can transfer foreign currencies from their domiciliary accounts with Nigerian banks to BDCs.
CBN said:
“All digital/transfer purchases of foreign currencies shall be credited to the BDC’s Nigerian domiciliary account.”
“Payments for all digital/transfer purchases of foreign currency by a BDC shall be by transfer to the customer’s Naira account. If the customer is non-resident (whether Nigerian or not), a BDC may issue the customer a prepaid NGN card.”
According to the financial regulator, BDCs can obtain foreign currencies from tourists, diaspora returnees, and expatriates who have received foreign exchange inflows from work, travel, investment, or domiciliary accounts.
Other acceptable sources mentioned by the CBN include residents with foreign exchange inflows from work, travel, investment, or their domiciliary accounts, as well as International Money Transfer Operators (IMTOs).
The CBN also listed embassies, hotels that are authorised buyers of foreign currencies, the Nigerian foreign exchange market (NFEM), and any other sources that the central bank may specify.