Nigerian Banks Will No Longer Charge Commission On Retail Forex Transactions

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The Bankers’ Committee rose from its meeting Tuesday with a consensus that commercial banks in the country should henceforth desist from charging customers commissions on retail foreign exchange (forex) transactions, ThisDay reports.

 

Retail forex transactions include the purchase of dollars for personal travel allowance (PTA), business travel allowance (BTA), school fees and medicals.

The chief executive of the FSDH Merchant Bank Limited, Mrs. Hamda Ambah, disclosed this while briefing the media at the end of the meeting in Lagos.

 

Desirous of alleviating the pains of retail forex consumers, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in May last year had directed all banks to sell the greenback for BTA, PTA, tuition and medical fees to customers at not more than N360 to dollar, down from N380 to the dollar at which forex was sold previously for retail transactions.

 

The CBN sells to banks at N357 to the dollar. However, it was learnt that some commercial banks have been charging commissions on such transactions.

To this end, Ambah explained: “One of the things we discussed was a measure that would provide some sort of palliative for all individuals in the country to at least enjoy the benefit.

“It was agreed that the forex that banks sell to their clients for PTA, BTA, school fees and medical bills, that henceforth all banks should charge N360/$ and there would be no commission whatsoever charged by the banks for such sales.

 

“We want to make sure that this is uniform across all banks. Customers should report any bank that goes outside of this. It has actually been N360 for a while, but some banks in addition to the fee, are charging commissions.”

 

Earlier, the director, Banking Supervision, CBN, Alhaji Ahmed Abdullahi, who was also at the briefing, put the present value of the country’s external reserves at $42 billion, higher than $40.4 billion last month.

 

The last time the country’s reserves derived mainly from proceeds of crude oil exports hit $42 billion was in December 2013.

 

Recent Eurobond issuances have also helped in boosting Nigeria’s reserves position.