THE President, the Association of Bureaux De Change Operators of Nigeria (ABCON), Mohammed Aminu Gwadabe, has won the Pillar of Nigeria Forex Market Award for his contributions to the foreign exchange market.
The award was presented to him by the National Business Extra Fourth Anniversary Lecture/Special Awards in Lagos.
The organisers described Gwadabe as a business leader who is passionate to see the forex market grow to global standards where professionalism and compliance with set standards are paramount.
They said his contributions to the foreign exchange market and building a process that makes dollars available to the grassroots through over 5,500 Central Bank of Nigeria-licensed bureaux de change operators nationwide was legendary.
Publisher, National Business Exta, Odion Ellis Aideloje, said Gwadabe has redefined Nigeria’s BDC sector with technology, capacity building for operators and support for exchange rate stability.
Aideloje said the award is to recognise Gwadabe’s contributions to the forex market and economy are domestically and globally recognised.
Before Gwadabe assumed leadership of the ABCON, he said, many foreign exchange end users saw BDCs as making no impact in market development.
But the digitisation of the BDCs operations under his leadership has changed the narratives about the sector.
The primary role of BDCs globally is to ensure forex availability to the critical retail sector of the forex market in terms of supply so as to bridge the gap between the official and the parallel market exchange rate.
They have even gone, for instance, beyond convergence, beyond providing liquidity, to the achievement of the major policy of the CBN, which is exchange rate stability.
His input in digitising the operations of BDCs, capacity building for operators and support for exchange rate stability cannot be over emphasised.
Today, the ABCON Live Run Automation Project created to automate all BDCs Operations with those of Nigeria Inter-bank Settlement System (NIBSS), Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) and Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has improved the level of compliance of the operators with set regulations.
It mirrored the new thinking in ABCON which is focused on making BDCs deliver best services to end users of foreign exchange.
With the world going digital, and BDC operators under the current ABCON leadership are committed to staying ahead of the competition by deploying time-tested technology to deliver effective services to foreign exchange end-users.
Gwadabe’s leadership at the ABCON has bought about automation of BDCs operations, including weekly rendition of returns to the CBN and Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU).
The ABCON under his leadership aligns with the CBN’s vision of providing a stable framework for the economic development of Nigeria through effective, efficient, and transparent implementation of monetary and exchange rate policy, and management of the financial sector.
The ABCON has also promoted forex buyers’ patronage of CBN-licenced BDCs which are regulatory-complaint and operate within international best practices by forex buyers.
The ABCON under his leadership has vigorously campaigned against forex speculators who are capitalizing on the state of the foreign exchange market and the naira to sell dollars above CBN approved approved margin.
The ABCON under Gwadabe’s leadership has called for opening up the diaspora remittances market to attract more funds to the economy.
Gwadabe’s leadership ABCON secured exemption of BDCs from the payment of Value Added Tax (VAT) on foreign exchange transactions to reflect global best practices.
Despite several challenges facing the Nigerian forex market, the BDCs under his leadership have continued to offer retail, across the counter, foreign exchange transactions and played critical roles in the economy, contributing to the economic development of the country and creation of over 15,000 jobs among others.
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