The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has approved the sale of foreign exchange (FX) to eligible bureau de change (BDC) operators at N1,450 per dollar to meet the demand for invisible transactions.

In a statement on Thursday signed by AA Mahdi, the acting director of the Trade and Exchange Department at the CBN.

This comes days after the apex bank sold $123m to authorised dealers.

The Association of Bureau De Change Operators of Nigeria claimed that they were excluded in that tranche of forex sales.

Aminu Gwadebe, the President of the ABCON, in an interview with the newsmen, said only banks got the forex intervention.

In the latest move, the CBN said it has “approved the sales of FX to eligible Bureau De Change to meet the demand for invisible transactions. The sum of $20,000 is to be sold to each BDC at the rate of N1,450/$ (representing the lower band of the trading rate at NAFEM in the previous trading day).”

Premising the move on the ongoing reforms in the foreign exchange market, the CBN said it “Has observed the continued distortions in the retail end of the market, which is feeding into the Parallel market and further widening the exchange rate premium.”

It warned the BDCs to sell to eligible end-users at a margin not more than 1.5 percent above the purchase rate from CBN.