ABCON run portal goes live, to integrate BDCs, CBN, others

Motolani Oseni

The Association of Bureaux De Change Operators of Nigeria (ABCON) will today, launch its Live Run Automation Portal in Lagos, and it is expected 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) to improve the level of compliance of the BDCs with set regulations. Speaking on this development ahead of the portal launch holding today, February 5, 2019, at the PISTISHUB, 1A Ikorodu road, Behind Mobil Filling Station, Maryland, Lagos, ABCON President, Aminu Gwadabe, said the group had secured the CBN’s no- objection approval to launch the Live Run portal. The approval, he said, reaffirmed the regulator’s commitment to a transparent and viable forex market where stakeholders’ interests are protected. Gwadabe said the world is going digital, and BDC operators under his leadership are committed to staying ahead of the competition by deploying time-tested technology to deliver effective services to customers. He said the objective is to make Live Run portal is to enhance BDCs compliance with set regulations and promote market integrity. According to him, the portal will sustain transparent transactions in the BDC corridor, boost the morale of its members and ensure their continuous operations. The ABCON chief said the group had fully upgraded its Information Communication and Technology (ICT) platforms, to achieve full digitization of BDCs operations in line with its goal of sustaining transparent operation and prompt rendition of weekly returns to regulators. He said the group also recently launched the www.naijabdcs.com to serve as a reliable platform for local and international investors, who will rely on it to access uniform forex rate across states, regions, and markets nationally. According to Gwadabe, ABCON coordination journey of automation and digitalization of BDC’s processes started in 2016 with the launch of our automation platform named www.abconng.org.ng. The project came with three layers and stages. The first layer is on online real-time registration of our members with a success rate of over 4,100 BDCs registered nationwide. This layer is to enable our members to conduct their membership registration from any of their locations without coming physically to ABCON Secretariat. The second layer bothers on automation of ABCON’s operational process, bookkeeping, issuance of a receipt, preparation of accounts, balance sheets, ledgers and sales/purchase registers. The most important of this layer is the online real-time rendition of returns to regulatory agencies. Another important feature of this layer is the BDCs onboarding and integration of the Bank Verification Number (BVN) platform on the NIBSS portal for verifications and validation of clients’ BVNs, which is a most vital requirement forex sale.  “Of special note is also the integration of our platform to immigration platform for the verifications of international passport. Already, we are in advance engagement with the Irish technology experts for the achievement of this idea. The final layer is the one that excites me a lot and has to do with a trading platform for BDCs in Nigeria. Our technical experts in India, Poland are in advance stage of completion for onward submission to the CBN,” he added