President, the Association of Bureaux De Change Operators of Nigeria (ABCON), Mohammed Aminu Gwadabe has won Pillar of Nigeria Forex Market Award for his contributions to the growth and development of the Nigerian foreign exchange market and support for Nigeria’s economic development.
‘The Pillar of Nigeria Forex Market Award’ was recently presented to him in Lagos by the National Business Extra Fourth Anniversary Lecture/Special Awards.
The organizers of the award described Gwadabe as a committed business leader passionate to see the Nigerian forex market grow to global standards where professionalism and compliance with set standards are paramount.
Gwadabe has has for several years played significant role in the Nigerian foreign exchange market. His contributions to the growth and sustenance of the forex market and capacity building of the Bureau De Change (BDC) operators has not gone unnoticed.
The organizers said his contributions to the growth of the foreign exchange market and building a process that makes dollars available to the grassroots through over 5,500 Central Bank of Nigeria -Licenced bureaux de change operators nationwide was legendary.
Publisher, National Business Exta, Odion Ellis Aideloje, said that 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 let Gwadabe know that his numerous contributions to the Nigerian forex market and economy are domestically and globally recognized.
Before Gwadabe assumed leadership of the ABCON, many foreign exchange end users saw BDCs as making no impact in market development.
But the digitization 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 inputs in digitizing the operations of BDCs, capacity building for operators and support for exchange rate stability cannot be over emphasized.
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 Central Bank of Nigeria (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 equally 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.
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