BDC operators in Nigeria have continued to lament the acute foreign exchange, FX shortage rocking the country.
When AfroWorldNews correspondent visited from BDC operators’ standpoints in Lagos, and Ogun states on Monday, October 23, 2023, he learnt from most of them that there was no money to serve their clients.
”A customer approached me this morning to buy pounds, but sadly, I don’t have any of those with me. I even made efforts to talk to my colleagues in other places, but unfortunately, all my efforts yielded zero results. There was no pound in the market, and this is affecting our business,” said Shuayu, a BDC operator in Berger, Lagos, Nigeria.
Echoing Shayu’s reality, one of the BDC operators in Nigeria who spoke with this writer, Ibrahim Umar expressed his frustration, saying the country is comatose with what is going on in the FX market.
His words, ”There are not enough words to describe this hardship. Our essence here is to provide FX to people who need it, as of course, they can’t work into the banks to request for it. But the reality is that we are struggling with scarcity. We literally don’t have what we need to keep our business running. Customers continue to make demands, and considering that we don’t have enough, the price continues to go up.”
Meanwhile, the Minister of Finance and coordinating of the economy, Wale Edun, earlier today, disclosed that around $10 billion of FX inflows is expected within weeks rather than months.
”In addition, from the supply of foreign exchange through NNPC, increased production, reduced expenditure, from transactions such as forward sales, from our discussions with sovereign wealth funds, that are ready to invest and provide advanced alongside that investment, there is a line of sight of $10 billion worth of foreign exchange in the relatively near future in weeks rather months,” the minister stated.
According to him, President Bola Tinubu, in order to ensure liquidity in the FX market, signed two executive orders already.
Afro World News
