The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Saturday, 6th March 2021, announced the introduction of a scheme to encourage inflows of diaspora remittances into the country termed “CBN Naira 4 Dollar Scheme”.
In a tweet on its twitter handle @cenbank, the Apex bank stated just as it did in a circular published on its website that the scheme is an incentive for senders and recipients of International Money Transfers.
Starting from Monday 8 March 2021 through to Saturday 08 May 2021, all recipients of diaspora remittances through CBN licensed IMTOs shall be paid N5 for every USD1 received as remittance inflow.
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Trans-fast remittance LLC, Worldremit Limited, UAE Exchange Centre LLC, and 8 other International Money Transfer Operators (IMTOs) were given licenses by the CBN to operate in Nigeria in the second half of 2020.
What is the practical meaning of the scheme? The CBN shall, through commercial banks, pay to remittance recipients the incentive of N5 for every $1 remitted by sender and collected by designated beneficiary.
This incentive is to be paid to recipients whether they choose to collect the USD as cash across the counter in a bank or transfer same into their domiciliary account. In effect, a typical recipient of diaspora remittances will, at the point of collection, receive not only the USD sent from abroad but also the additional N5 per USD received.
What does the “CBN Naira 4 Dollar Scheme” mean for you? If you receive $1,000.00 from a relative abroad through an of the IMTOs, the bank will pay you an additional 5,000 Naira.
The Central Bank of Nigeria, has been in a never ending battle to defend the value of the Naira for years now, and has employed several methods to do so. The CBN last devalued the naira or “adjusted” the official rate of the naira from N360.00 to N379.00 in August 2020.
Nnamdi Maduakor is a Writer, Investor and Entrepreneur