CBN, Bankers' Committee To Digitse Dollar Sales

The Central Bank of Nigeria, along with the bankers' committee has moved to digitize dollar sales for legitimate needs by creating an App.

These legitimate needs include Business Travel Allowance (BTA), Personal Travel Allowance (PTA), school fees and medicals.

This was the outcome of the 357th meeting of the banker’s committee meeting held virtually on Thursday.

The committee discussed the state of the economy, Foreign Exchange (FX) policies and stoppage of forex sales to the Bureaux De Change Operators.

It also discussed the ongoing rehabilitation of the National Arts Theatre, aimed at repositioning Nigeria on the global tourism map.

“I hope that many of you will see that the new Foreign Exchange policy with regards to Invisibles, Personal Travel Allowance (PTA), Basic Travel Allowance (BTA), tuition fees, and medical payments, is working very well," said Mr Segun Agbaje, Group Managing Director of Guarantee Trust Bank.

“We have taken it upon ourselves along with the regulator to make sure that this works, and this is just the first phase and if you noticed most of the things you are doing today, you are going into the branches to do most things.

“But, we are going to also try to digitise this whole thing the way the world is going; and that is being done by Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System Plc (NIBSS) where you will be able to buy online,” Agbaje said.

According to him, the NIBSS already has a portal, through which banks share information on the application process.

Agbaje warned fraudulent individuals to have a change of mind as anyone caught would not be able to do anything in the banking system again.

He further said the punishment would not only be meted to fraudulent individuals, but also to any bank and staff that contravened the apex bank’s rules.

In addition to digitising, Agbaje expressed the hope that customers would no longer carry out all their transactions by cash.

“The world today is not friendly about arriving in countries with cash, so we are hoping that people will be able to put this on their cards and card account.

“If you use a card, there is more KYC that can easily be done! It will be quicker, cheaper and faster, you will be less harassed when you arrive in countries and there will be no need for you to fill a cash declaration form,” he said.