BEVERLY HILLS, April 28, (THEWILL) – The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has licensed 10 more International Money Transfer Operators (IMTOs) in the country.
In March, the CBN had listed only 47 IMTOs as licensed operators. While some of the operators had their addresses in Nigeria, others were based outside the country.
With the new licences issued, the total number of IMTOs operating in the country now stands at 57.
In an updated post on its website on Monday, the CBN listed the newly-licensed operators as Transfercorp Limited/VFD Group; Comot Trading Nigeria Limited; Direkt Wire UK Limited; Gabtrans UK Limited in partnership with Moneyto Limited; GDM Transfer PTY Limited; Innovate 1 Pay Limited; Paysend Plc; SANAA Capital LLC (Money4 Diaspora Services LLC); Swift Payment Limited and WI-PAY Global LLC.
The CBN has in recent times been designing policies to encourage further inflows of the foreign currencies.
CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, had said reforms to increase diaspora remittances into the country would support the economy and help reduce the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
He had said if the country could have inflows of about $10 billion to $15 billion, this would have a significant effect on the economy amidst the current fiscal constraints.
He noted that the initiatives introduced by the CBN to boost foreign exchange in the country were yielding results.
The apex bank also introduced a rebate of N5 for every $1 of fund remitted to Nigeria through IMTOs in its forex policy.
Emefiele said the CBN introduced the rebate to reduce the cost burden of remitting funds to Nigeria by Nigerians in the diaspora.
He said, “This rebate will be provided to the bank accounts of beneficiaries, following receipt of remittance inflows.
“We believe this new measure will help to make the process of sending remittance through formal bank channels cheaper and more convenient for Nigerians in the diaspora.”
The ‘Naira-4-Dollar Scheme’, which took effect on March 8, 2021, would end on May 8.
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