Just incase you missed it, Western Union and Moneygram has been told to stop paying Nigerians in foreign currencies. To my knowledge, this is the only country in the world where these companies operates and pay in the local currencies. Read it below and the reason:
In an effort
to check money laundering in Nigeria, which it claims is weakening the Naira
and risks driving up inflation, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has stated
that recipients of proceeds from international money transfer firms such as
Western Union and Money Gram will only be paid in Naira instead of having the
option of receiving dollar or Naira.
The central
bank also suspended its twice-weekly Wholesale Dutch Auctions (WDAS) and
replaced it with a Retail Dutch Auction (RDA) which will require dealers to
reveal the identity of the buyers and will take place on Monday and Wednesday
of every week.
Also dealers
will now have to obtain prior approval to import foreign currency bank notes to
prevent money laundering and the limit on Naira debit and credit card spending
abroad has also been increased to $150,000 per year from $40,000.
The CBN said
its actions were in reaction to the huge influx of dollars into the country
which it suspects is linked to early political campaigning for 2015 elections.
A spokesperson said, "available statistics indicate that Nigeria has
become the largest importer of U.S. dollars due to importation of cash by
Deposit Money Banks (DMBs)."
CBN Governor,
Lamido Sanusi, also said that it is "absolutely wrong for bureau de
changes (BDC) to buy hundreds of millions of dollars without any
accountability."
Only the banks will benefit from this arrangement and the Federal Government not the people.
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