FX Scarcity: EFCC Storms Bureaux de Change Operators in Abuja

Kingsley Nwezeh in Abuja

Operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, (EFCC), yesterday stormed Wuse Zone 4, Abuja, home to most bureau de change operators in the Federal Capital Territory, in what a source said was a covert operation to dislodge currency speculators who are alleged to be massively mopping up available foreign currencies.  

THISDAY gathered that the raid is a product of weeks of surveillance in which agents of the EFCC  monitored the activities of most of the Bureau de change operators in the Wuse, Zone 4, near Sheraton Hotel and Towers.

The anti-graft agency is believed to be working on intelligence that some forces with massive Naira inflow  mobilised  resources and are busy buying up available foreign currencies especially the United States dollar to either hoard or smuggle the same out of Nigeria,

Some operatives of the Commission have also been spotted at major airports in the country in what a source said was a coordinated nationwide operation that would be extended to all the major commercial cities such Kano, Lagos and Port Harcourt.

There has lately been a run on the value of the Naira with the currency exchanging for over N720 to a dollar.