The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Wednesday directed commercial banks in the country to open new dollar accounts with offshore lenders for receiving international money transfers.
The directive was made known by WorldRemit, an International Money Transfer Operators (IMTO) player to its clients.
The apex bank also directed that all mobile money operators should disable wallets from receipt of funds from IMTOs, following abuse of policy guidelines by the IMTOs.
The CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele said some IMTOs, rather than compete on improving transaction volumes and creating more efficient ways for Nigerians in the Diaspora to remit funds, resorted to engaging in arbitrage arrangements on the naira-dollar exchange rate.
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This largely contributed to the significant drop inflows into the country, according to Emefiele.
He warned against the use of unsafe unofficial channels which have been undermining Nigeria’s Foreign Exchange management framework.
Reacting to the new policy, WorldRemit, said it welcomed the CBN announcement that all Nigerian banks will be ordered to facilitate money transfers by automatically opening US Dollar bank accounts for those who do not currently have such.
It said: “This development ensures that all international money transfers will be successfully processed even if senders enter Naira account details for transactions. Further to this announcement, the CBN also stated that a $2,000 withdrawal limit will apply to these accounts.”
“A number of analysts have described this recent development as a long-awaited and broadly welcome policy that will benefit both senders and recipients. The apex bank has said these changes will ensure that transactions do not fail due to a recipient not having a US Dollar bank account.
“It will also introduce transparency by guaranteeing that all recipients receive an exchange rate that reflects the market rate.”
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Speaking on the development, Country Manager, Nigeria and Ghana, at WorldRemit, Gbenga Okejimi said: “We are very pleased by the CBN’s decision to mandate Nigerian banks to help citizens who do not have a USD account by automatically providing this facility on their behalf.
“This development will make all the difference to those who receive support from family and friends abroad. For our part, we are excited by the fact that we can continue to enable the transfer of remittances to more people across Nigeria whilst also supporting the Nigerian government in its efforts to strengthen the economy.”
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