By Babajide Komolafe

Association of Bureaux De Change Operators of Nigeria (ABCON) has introduced the three initiatives to empower bureaux de change (BDCs) to effectively perform their roles.

The initiatives are the Operation Manual and Identification Logo for licensed bureaux de change (BDCs) and the ABCON website.

Speaking at the official launching of the initiatives,  ABCON President, Alhaji Aminu Gwadabe said, “These initiatives represent part of the efforts of ABCON to enhance capacity of members and boost confidence of the public to do business with BDCs.

The overall objective is to empower BDCs to effectively play their roles in the nation’s foreign exchange market, and in the economy. In ABCON we are determined to ensure we provide quality services in compliance with regulations.”

He said  that  while the Operational Manual for BDCs was developed and designed to address the increasing need for training and retraining of the growing population of BDC operators, the Identification Logo is designed to address the need to distinguish between BDCs and illegal currency hawkers referred to as black market operators.

He said, “Though the Association as mentioned earlier organises training from time to time, we realise the need to complement these efforts with a document that can provide basic understanding and information about operations of BDCs, regulatory requirement  and code of conducts for operators. Such is also necessary for immediate training of new staff by each BDCs.

Consequently, ABCON designed and developed the Operation Manual for BDCs.  The Manual is a concise and comprehensive information and explanation of every aspect of the BDC business, in compliance with CBN guidelines. It has fourteen (14) chapters and twelve (12) appendixes.

“We also realise that there are a lot of people who want to ignorantly patronise illegal currency traders thinking they are patronising BDCs. To address this challenge, ABCON has designed and developed an IDENTIFICATION LOGO for BDCs across the country.

The purpose is to help members of the public indentify location of licensed BDCs, and hence avoid patronising illegal currency traders. Also, the inclusion of ABCON’s Customer Complaint Desk phone numbers and email addresses provides further confidence to the public in their transactions with BDCs, knowing they can also report the BDC to ABCON if their expectation is not satisfied.”

Also speaking at the launch, Mr. Yomi Bedu, Deputy Director, Other Financial Institutions Supervision Department, CBN, commended ABCON for developing the Manual.

He said, “The Manual will ensure that BDCs continue to adhere, learn all the details of the CBN guidelines so that you will keep within the limits of what you are supposed to do. We are happy that going forward you are going to have a logo, and that will assist members of the public to distinguish between licensed operators and illegal operators”.