Due to the scarcity of dollars in the circulation, banks have surprisingly started to encourage their clients to patronise black marketeers, reports Punch Newspaper
Our source who visited some banks in the Dugbe area of Ibadan, Oyo State, observed that information displayed on the boards at the banks early on Thursday put the sale of dollars at between N365 and N369.50k. Later on Thursday, however, the naira tumbled significantly in the parallel market hitting 391 against the dollar.
However, officials at some of the banks said an order had to be placed because the currency was not available.
A foreign exchange officer in one of the banks revealed that the price at his bank was not fixed as it changes daily. He said if our correspondent was in need of the currency immediately, it was better to approach the black market in the Sabo area of the city to purchase the dollars — at a higher rate, though.
He said, “Depending on the amount you want to purchase, you may have to place an order, but the price keeps changing. The price you see today might change tomorrow. In fact, it now changes every day.”
At a First Bank branch in the city on Wednesday, our source met an importer of generator parts, Kunle Olatunji, who had approached the bank for foreign exchange transaction.
According to Olatunji, who has a store at Ogunpa market in the city, he had earlier visited the bank on Tuesday and was told to check back on Wednesday to complete his transaction. On the day of the appointment, the trader was disappointed because he was told that he could only get less than what he wanted.
He said, “I had sent some money to my agent in Japan, but he told me that I had to complete the money before he could send any goods. I resorted to using agents because of travelling expenses since dollar rate became inconsistent and excessively high. It was a bit risky, but I had to take a decision to save cost and remain in business.
“I needed at least $5,000 more and if you consider that in today’s exchange rate, it is high. The naira I had on me on Tuesday, which I thought would be enough, could not purchase the amount of dollars I need. Today, I was told that it had gone up.”
When one of our correspondents visited the Guarantee Trust Bank on Ojodu-Berger Road, a female bank official initially asked our correspondent how much dollars he required and for which purpose.
After being told that it was for an overseas transaction, she asked if the same would be conducted through her bank, but our correspondent answered her in the negative.
“Actually, we have so many people who keep coming here every day because we have none available at the moment. There is a waiting list. If you need it urgently, there is a man (bureau de change operator) around the corner (just beside the bank). You can talk to him and he may make some arrangements,” she said.
It was learnt that the bureau de change operator in question works in concert with some officials of the bank on the buying and selling of dollars.
A customer later told one of our correspondents that the officials at the bank always direct people to the bureau de change operator, highlighting the belief that many banks are taking advantage of the customers because of the dollar scarcity.
At one of the old generation banks in Bauchi, a staff of the bank simply said, “Go to the black market and buy it there; we no longer sell dollars, but if you have, you can bring and deposit.”
When asked when it could be found at the bank, he simply said, “Mah, my brother, you can get it when Buhari fulfils his promise of making $1 equivalent to N1.”
A banker who works at Eco Bank stated that the bank does not have dollars. He hinted that the best way to get the green back was at the black market, but said that they (the black marketeers) don’t sell at the official rate.
He also advised that while dealing with the black marketeers, clients should be careful because most of the marketeers had started selling fake dollars.
He said that if anyone wanted to transact business with them, it was advisable to ask the seller to meet them at a bank where the dollar currency could be checked to ensure that it is not fake.
“We have not had dollars here in a while. In fact, we don’t sell dollar. If you really need it, you would have to go to a licensed bureau de change. But I advise that you ask them to come to the bank so as to ensure you are not buying fake dollars,” he said.
At a branch of Zenith Bank, a customer care officer told our correspondent that the bank did not have dollars to pay out “at the moment.”
“We don’t have dollars at the moment. You don’t necessarily need to have a dollar account with us to buy dollar from us, but even now, there is scarcity,” she said.
She, however, suggested that our correspondent should try the black market or check back at a later date.
Also, at a First Bank branch in Lagos, an official revealed that the bank does not sell dollars to people unless those who have domiciliary accounts with the bank.
He, however, added that for those who want to pay for their children’s tuition in dollars, they could use Form A to do so.
Meanwhile, a source at a branch of Union Bank at the Federal Capital Territory in Abuja said that apart from the dwindling dollar reserve in the bank, there had been a rising demand for dollars, including by parents who want to pay the school fees of their children schooling abroad.
The source noted that due to the shortage of dollars made available to banks by the CBN and the rising demand, the bank had put a limit on the number of transactions that could be carried out per day.
“Sometimes, we have people in the queue for such transactions, but once we reach the limit for that day, people have to come back the following day, but due to the pressing demand and the fact that it is on first come first served basis, they now come early to form the queue. As expected, some are angry and displeased with the development, but we are helpless,” he said.
During a visit to Access Bank in the city, a young lady who was in charge of Western Union transactions said that the bank had not had dollars since late last year. She further disclosed that the Western Union Money transfer was not operational and that Money Gram service was most times unavailable.
“We have not had dollars since about September last year. It has been like that since the forex rate got on the high side. As I speak to you, the Western Union Money Transfer is currently offline and even Money Gram service has been very erratic,” she said.
She, however, advised our correspondent to try the black market if the need for dollars was urgent. At a branch of the United Bank for Africa, the Western Union Transfer was operational, but it was learnt learnt that dollar was scarce in the bank too.
A customer care representative said that the last time the bank had the currency was in November 2015.
The banker advised that if the dollar was needed to pay school fees for anyone abroad, the way to go about it was to ask the bank to help pay the money after the customer had put money in their naira account.
“If you need the dollars to pay school fees, what we suggest you use is what we call a Form A. For that, you need to have an account with the bank, fund your account and the bank would pay the fees for you at the official rate. But you would need to present some documents to us, such as a letter of admission or acceptance letter and passport,” he said.
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