The Association of Bureaux De Change Operators of Nigeria (ABCON) has said it has secured a no-objection approval from the Central Bank of Nigeria to launch an initiative called ‘Live Run Automation Portal’.
According to a statement, the project is expected to automate all BDCs’ operations with those of the Nigeria Inter-bank Settlement System, the Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit and the CBN to improve the level of compliance of the BDCs with set regulations.
The ABCON President, Aminu Gwadabe, said the approval reaffirmed the regulator’s commitment to a transparent and viable foreign exchange market with stakeholders’ interests protected.
Gwadabe, who noted that the world was going digital, said the BDC operators under his leadership were committed to staying ahead of the competition by deploying time-tested technology to deliver effective services to customers.
He said the objective was to use the portal to enhance BDCs’ compliance with set regulations and promote market integrity.
According to him, the portal will sustain transparent transactions in the BDC corridor, boost the morale of its members and ensure their continuous operations.
The ABCON boss said the group had fully upgraded its Information and Communications and Technology platforms to achieve full digitisation of the BDCs’ operations in line with its goal of sustaining transparent operations and prompt rendition of weekly returns to regulatory agencies.
He stated that the group also recently launched the www.naijabdcs.com to serve as a reliable platform for local and international investors who would rely on it to access uniform forex rate across states, regions and markets nationally.
According to Gwadabe, ABCON’s coordination journey of automation and digitalisation of BDC’s processes started in 2016 with the launch of its automation platform, named www.abconng.org.ng.
It stated, “The project came with three layers and stages. The first layer is on online real-time registration of our members with a success rate of over 4,100 BDCs registered nationwide. This layer is to enable our members to conduct their membership registration from any of their location without coming physically to ABCON secretariat.”
According to him, the second layer bothers on the automation of ABCON’s operational process, book-keeping, issuance of receipt, preparation of accounts, balance sheets, ledgers and sales/purchase registers.
He said, “The most important of this layer is the online real-time rendition of returns to regulatory agencies. Another important feature of this layer is the BDCs’ onboarding and integration of the Bank Verification Number platform on the NIBSS portal for verifications and validation of clients’ BVNs, which is a most vital requirement forex sale.”
