By Lawal Nasir
One vexed issue that continues to throw spanner in the works against Nigeria’s progress is the penchant for viewing everything under the sun from a regional, religious, or ethnic angle. Arrest a criminal today, and the discussion will most likely be about where he comes from or which faith he professes, rather than the crime committed. That has been our lot as a country, unfortunately!
It is this same warped mentality that the Arewa Economic Forum (AEF), a group that prides itself as a leading northern Nigerian advocacy and think-tank, adopted recently with regards to the Bureau de Change (BDC) recapitalisation implemented by the Cental Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
Speaking at a press conference in Abuja through its chairman Alhaji Ibrahim Shehu Dandakata, the Arewa Economic Forum did what amounts to “running with the hare and hunting with the hounds”. While acknowledging and appreciating the objectives of the BDC recapitalisation exercise in one breadth, the group said it “poses a direct threat to thousands of legitimate Northern entrepreneurs and their families” in another.
Dandakata, in that ill-prepared outing, raised a number of issues. For instance, he said the timing of the policy was especially troubling, given the government’s anti-corruption stance and the exclusion of banks, NGOs, public officers, foreign nationals, and other financial institutions from BDC ownership, which further limits financing options. He also said more than 90% of BDCs that have met the new requirements were based in the South, with Lagos alone accounting for the vast majority, and the sector now dominated by a single ethnic group. “In contrast, less than 10% of compliant BDCs are owned by Northerners, despite Northern traders historically sustaining the sub-sector, particularly in commercial hubs such as Wapa in Kano, Zone 4 in Abuja, Broad Street in Lagos, and markets in Sokoto, Minna, Benin, and Port Harcourt,” he added.
Here, one is tempted to ask: if banks, NGOs, public officers, foreign nationals, and other financial institutions were not excluded from BDC ownership, will that be a favour or a curse to North? Today, the entire North does not have any form of control in any bank with national or international licenses. Of the more than 20 commercial banks in Nigeria, only two (non-interest financial institutions with regional licenses) have some Northern touch. This means that even if the above-listed entities were allowed to own BDCs, the North will lost out, still!
But in a clear attempt to whip up sentiment among Nigerians of Northern extraction, the Arewa group chose to play the victim game. It said the BDC recapitalisation exercise will make thousands of Northerners jobless in a region which is already battling terrorism, banditry, and rampant youth unemployment, adding that the Minister of Finance Wale Edun and CBN Governor Yemi Cardoso should reconsider the policy’s optics and regional imbalance, especially given that most top appointments in Nigeria’s financial institutions—including FIRS, SEC, PENCOM, and NSITF—are held by Southerners, predominantly of Yoruba origin. Funny!
The reality is that the Arewa Economic Forum is not helping the North with this pedestrian line of thinking. It may end up achieving the unintended, because its intention may come across as sinister. If it is not, then it should, first of all, understand that the CBN did not just implement the BDC recapitalisation exercise overnight. It started in February 2025 by seeking comments/inputs from operators and other stakeholders in the financial service industry for ‘Revised regulatory and supervisory guidelines for Bureau De Change operators in Nigeria – Exposure Draft’. Based on the draft, BDC operators would be required to have a new capital base: N2bn for Tier-1 (i.e. those wishing to have a licence that will allow them operate nationwide) and N500m for Tier-2 (those wishing to operate in one state). BDC operators and other stakeholders with comments were asked to forward them to the Director, Financial Policy and Regulation Department, CBN, by March 4, 2024.
In May 2024, two months after all comments and inputs by all stakeholders must have reached the CBN, the apex bank ordered all existing BDC operators in the country and promoters of new entrants to reapply for new operating licenses of their choice. The CBN also issued a six-month deadline (November 2024) for the BDCs to meet the minimum capital requirements for the license category applied for from the effective date of the guidelines.
An extension was even granted, as confirmed in November 2024 by the President, Association of Bureaux De Change of Nigeria (ABCON) Aminu Gwadebe. He informed his colleagues that the CBN had extended the deadline by six months (i.e. from November 2024 to June 3, 2025), pointing out that some BDCs have already started complying with the CBN directive. The same Gwadabe had earlier said it was “against international best practices”, lamenting how the capital base for BDCs was increased from N10 million to N35 million in 2014 and how it was now being raised from N35 million to N500 million and N2 billion. He however had to change tactics when it was clear that the idea had come to stay.
What the Arewa Economic Forum needs to do to help BDC operators from the North – if it truly cares about the financial standing of the region and its people – is to educate them on the benefits of mergers, partnerships and even acquisitions to enable them pool resources and consolidate their financial standing. Those with more resources can always have stakes commensurate to their investments in the venture. The era of small, one-man businesses is becoming outdated because, most often than not, such businesses either die with the demise of the owner or run without any form of transparency.
Unfortunately, our financial problem in the North is not just in the BDC space. We have not shown enough seriousness in developing our region economically and socially, despite our huge potential. We have rich people with enough resources to establish a real financial institution(s) in the North, if they so wish. Only that they don’t see it as a priority. Our political, traditional leaders seem not to care. We all love going solo, forming ‘big man’ in our little corner.
But as a famous saying in this part of the world goes, a broom is able to sweep because it is a collection of several individual sticks that can not do much on their own. So when two or more companies pool their resources together, they benefit from an improved capital base, a more robust market position, a diverse and skilled workforce as well as an increased bargaining power which will afford them the chance to take on big business ideas and achieve a bigger success in the end. This is the message that the Arewa Economic Forum should propagate. There is no problem the North has that the North can not solve, with the right mindset and determination.
As AEF knows very well, the BDC business can not be reduced to a man (or some men) sitting under a shade and flagging down vehicles by the road side to carry out business transactions worth millions. And this man is without a fixed address, just as his customers remain unidentified and untraceable. Therefore, the BDC recapitalisation exercise implemented by the CBN must be viewed as the economic imperative that it. It is part of the reforms of the foreign exchange market, which must not be regionalised, religionised, or ethnicised. Shadowy individuals must not be allowed to transact billions in naira and foreign currency outside of our financial system just because we want people to have something doing. Not when we are battling terrorism and other forms of criminality, which makes the BDC recapitalisation exercise a security matter, too.
*Nasir writes from Abuja.
