Barely two months
after the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) gave approval to Travelex, a global
foreign exchange dealer, to sell Basic Travel Allowance (BTA) and Personal
Travel Allowance (PTA) to intending travellers, Daily Sun investigation
revealed that acute shortage of dollars may have hit the firm.
The development has
left hundreds of travellers stranded as a result of the inability of Travelex
to provide them withthe required foreign exchange.
An official of
Travelex at Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, who pleaded not to
be named because he was not authorised to speak, told Daily Sun that for about
12 days, the global forex dealer has been unable to attend to the requests of
passengers.
Besides Travelex,
majority of other CBN licensed Bureaux De Change (BDCs) are equally without forex to disburse to end
users.
Some travellers, who
spoke to Daily Sun at the international wing of the airport, expressed their
frustrations, saying they might suspend their trips because of their inability
to source the hard currency.
A passenger aboard a
KLM flight to Amsterdam enroute to Houston, who identified herself simply as
Judith, said she blamed the management of Travelex for not communicating with
the members of the public, either through advertorial, radio jingles or
television to keep them abreast of the development so that they could make
alternative arrangement.
Another traveller on
Lufthansa, Mr. Kunle Odedina, faulted the shoddy arrangement on the part of
Travelex, saying it could have saved hundreds of passengers the embarrassing
situation.
But when contacted,
the Acting Director, Corporate Communications of CBN, Mr. Isaac Okorafor, said
the forex given to Travelex and licensed BDCs are inflows from International
Money Transfer Organisation (IMTO),
adding that once the inflow is not forthcoming, such would affect disbursement
to Travelex and other BDCs.
On his part, Media
Consultant to Travelex, Mr. Festus Masajuwa, explained that there was no stock
available to sell to travellers, adding that replenishment was being awaited
from CBN.
‘‘The truth is that
we don’t have control over what CBN does. It is whatever they give to us that
we sell, but for now, we are out of stock. We have been asking them for forex,
and all they keep telling us is that they will get back to us. But I believe we
should have supply before the end of the week,’’ he said.
The CBN, in its circular
of August 9,2016, on the sale of forex proceeds of IMTOs to BDCs, stated that
authorised dealers shall sell forex cash to BDCs subject to a maximum of
$30,000 to a BDC per week.
The circular added
that a BDC shall nominate its preferred authorised dealer and can only procure
the said amount from that bank of its choice in a week.
The bank said the
rate by the authorised dealers to BDCs shall be the buying rate from IMTOsß
plus a margin not exceeding 1.5 per cent.
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