The Biggest Barrier to Wealth Is Your Self-Limiting Beliefs

I’ve made millions by trading penny stocks and teaching my students how to do the same, but what a lot of people don’t know about me is that I was a philosophy major in college. My career has obviously taken me in a different direction, but the one thing that’s always stuck with me from my studies is Plato’s famous “Allegory of the Cave.”
Here’s how Wikipedia sums up this popular thought experiment: “Plato has Socrates describe a gathering of people who have lived chained to the wall of a cave all of their lives, facing a blank wall. The people watch shadows projected on the wall by things passing in front of a fire behind them, and begin to designate names to these shadows. The shadows are as close as the prisoners get to viewing reality. He then explains how the philosopher is like a prisoner who is freed from the cave and comes to understand that the shadows on the wall do not make up reality at all, as he can perceive the true form of reality rather than the mere shadows seen by the prisoners.”
For so long, most of us have had the same old “financial wisdom” shoved down our throats. We’re taught really early on to buy and hold blue chip stocks for the long run, and to diversify our portfolios until we’ve achieved some mythical perfect balance.
But when you consider that the value of American retirement savings in 401(k) accounts and IRAs shrank by $2 trillion at the depths of the Great Recession, isn’t it possible that we’ve all just been sold financial lies by people who benefit from us thinking of the shadows on the walls as reality?
When I was in high school and started learning about penny stocks, I couldn’t believe what I’d stumbled onto. Everyone was telling me that penny stocks were too risky and that I shouldn’t waste my time on them. Yet, when I studied them I uncovered trading patterns that have proven successful throughout my 15+ year trading career.
If I hadn’t been willing to break through the fixed beliefs everyone was trying to sell me, I’d probably be flipping burgers today like so many other philosophy majors out there.
So that’s what I challenge you to think about today… What beliefs do you hold as reality that might not be true at all?

Image credit: Wikimedia Commons

Related: Stop Listening to These 5 Self-Limiting Beliefs Stunting Your Business
Do you think that it’s too late for you to be a millionaire? It’s not. My students range in age from high schoolers to senior citizens. Age doesn’t matter. You can absolutely still achieve successI if you’re willing to work hard and recognize you need a different approach to turn a small portfolio into a wealthy account.
Do you think that you had to be born into your millions? You don’t. I come from a middle class background in Connecticut (not even the nice part). My parents aren’t wealthy, and I don’t have any kind of inheritance to fall back on. Everything I’ve earned, I’ve earned myself. You can do the same if you’re serious about becoming a millionaire.
Do you think you’re too stupid to be a millionaire? You’re not. Millionaires aren’t all nerdy Bill Gates types. More often than not, they’re people who figured out a system for building wealth and worked that system, day-in and day-out, without thinking too much about how or why it works. I’m not a genius, and I’m far from the smartest person hanging out on my forums. Believe me when I say that if I can do it, so can you.
Those are just three examples. Maybe you fall into them, maybe you don’t. If you don’t, there are probably other self-limiting thoughts that are holding you back from your financial future that you need to weed out and eliminate.
Related: 5 Thoughts That Crush Success
To get started, think about the wealthiest person you know, whether that’s me or somebody else in your life. If you catch yourself thinking, “I could never do what they’ve done,” ask yourself why. Really dig down. What makes you think you aren’t capable of doing the same thing? Then, explore why you think those things. Are they actually good reasons, or are they things you’ve told yourself for so long that you’ve turned them into your reality?
I’d be willing to bet that your reasons aren’t reasons at all -- they’re excuses. Make it your mission to find them and destroy them. Join the rest of us who have escaped the cave and banished the self-imposed limitations that would have otherwise kept us from becoming wealthy.
What’s one self-inflicted belief you have that’s holding you back? Share it below in the comments, along with how you’ll fight it going forward.

7 Hobbies Science Says Will Make You Smarter

For a long time, it was believed that people are born with a given level of intelligence and the best we could do in life was to live up to our potential. Scientists have now proven that we can actually increase our potential and enjoy ourselves in the process. We now know that by learning new skills the brain creates new neural pathways that make it work faster and better.
Here is a list of seven hobbies that make you smarter and why.

1. Play a musical instrument.

Playing music helps with creativity, analytical skills, language, math, fine motor skills and more. While these are all great advantages, some people argue that playing team sports might do as many things. What playing musical instruments does that other activities don’t is strengthen the corpus callosum that links the hemispheres of the brain by creating new connections.
An improved corpus callosum helps with executive skills, memory, problem solving and overall brain function, regardless of how old you are.

2. Read anything.

The benefits of reading are the same whether you are enjoying Game of Thrones, Harry Potter or the latest issue of the Wall Street Journal. Reading reduces stress, which makes you feel better about yourself, and increases all three types of intelligence -- crystallised, fluid and emotional. That helps with problem solving, putting different pieces of knowledge together to better navigate everyday life, detecting patterns, understanding processes and accurately interpreting and responding to other people’s feelings.
At work, this translates into better understanding how to make things happen and better managerial skills.

3. Exercise regularly.

Occasional exercise alone doesn’t do the trick. Regular exercise is much more effective than hard work-outs every now and then. When exercising regularly the cells are flooded with BDNF, a protein that helps with memory, learning, focus, concentration and understanding. This is also often referred to as mental acuity.
Some scientists speculate that sitting down for prolonged periods of time has the opposite affect and actually hinders our brain from working as well as it could.
Related: Don't Let Too Much Sitting at Your Desk Harm Your Health

4. Learn a new language.

Forget solving puzzles to improve your memory and learn a foreign language instead. Research has shown that people who are bilingual are better at solving puzzles than people who speak only one language. Successfully learning new languages enables your brain to better perform any mentally demanding tasks. This includes the typical executive skills such as planning and problem-solving.
Additionally, speaking at least two languages positively affects your skill to monitor your environment and to better direct your attention to processes. Many people are told that because executives speak languages, they should learn Spanish or French if they want to move up the ranks. Based on how the brain reacts to learning languages, it might be the other way around. Learning another language might be the last missing link people need to get their brain ready to take on C-level jobs.

5. Test your cumulative learning.

Many intelligent students in high school and college "cram'' for finals and seem to have mastered the topic the day of the big test. The trouble with that is we tend to forget these things quickly because we are rarely, if ever, required to repeat that knowledge in that same way. One reason studying a new language makes us smarter is because it requires cumulative learning. Because we need them over and over again, the grammar and vocabulary we learn is repeated countless times as we improve our foreign language skills.
Apply the concept of cumulative learning to every day life and your work place by keeping track of noteworthy bits of knowledge you acquire. Go through takeaways from recent books, observations during an important negotiation, or keep a small journal with anything that strikes your attention. Start integrating cumulative learning into your self-improvement program.
Related: You Have the Power to Rewire Your Brain for More Joy

6. Work out your brain.

Sudoku, puzzles, riddles, board games, video games, card games, and similar activities increase neuroplasticity. This encompasses a wide variety of changes in neural pathways and synapses that is basically the ability of the brain to reorganize itself. When nerve cells respond in new ways, that  increases neuroplasticity, which allows us more ability to see things from different points-of-view andunderstand cause and effect of behaviors and emotions. We become aware of new patterns and our cognitive abilities are improved.
Considering that neuroplasticity is involved in impairments such as tinnitus, an increased amount can help prevent certain conditions. For instance, people with high neurplasticity are less prone to anxiety and depression while learning faster and memorizing more.

7. Meditate.

In 1992 the Dalai Lama invited scientist Richard Davidson to study his brain waves during meditation to find out whether he could generate specific brain waves on command. Turns out that when the Dalai Lama and other monks were told to meditate and focus on compassion, their brain waves showed that they were in a deeply compassionate state of mind. The full research results were published in “Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences” in 2004 and then in the Wall Street Journal, where it received an enormous amount of attention.
Meditation became interesting to ambitious people because the study implied that we can control our own brain waves and feel whatever we want to feel whenever we want to. This means we can feel more powerful right before a negotiation, more confident when asking for a raise and more convincing during a sales call.
The general idea is that the brain can develop further and you can do it on purpose. Different activities stimulate different areas of your brain, so you can work on becoming unbeatable at your strengths as well as improving your weaknesses. Focusing self-improvement on the brain is a good idea for anyone who feels they are at their professional peak (or maybe just have stopped getting better), ambitious professionals and of course entrepreneurs who are looking to maximize their potential.

5 Things Millionaires Do That Most People Don't

. Millionaires work hard.

A lot of people think that winning the lottery is their ticket to success, but I’ve got bad news for you. Nearly 90 percent of lottery winners go through their winnings in five years or less, leaving them back in the same situation they were in before they won.
Millionaires know that there are no shortcuts to success. There’s only hard work executed relentlessly in pursuit of a goal.
I know that, in my case, I wouldn’t be where I am today if I hadn’t been willing to work hard. I didn’t have a mentor when I started trading stocks in high school. It was up to me to put in the hours needed to become successful. There were plenty of times I would have rather gone out with friends or played video games -- anything but sit in front of the computer and study stock charts for another hour.
But I did it. I put in the work upfront because I knew the results would be worth it, they’ve paid off. I’m living my dream lifestyle because I wasn’t afraid to work hard.
Related: Sure, Work Hard, But Also Create Your Own Luck

2. Millionaires are focused.

That said, it isn’t just about working hard. You have to be working hard on the right thing.
Have you ever known somebody who’s constantly jumping from one “million dollar idea” to another? We all want to be rich, but the people who can’t choose one path to focus on simply aren’t going to achieve it. It’s the people who dedicate themselves to a single pursuit that come out on top, whether that one path is penny stock trading, company building or something else.

3. Millionaires are careful about risk.

I happen to think that penny stock trading represents one of the best opportunities to build generational wealth. The barriers to entry are low and, if you follow the rules I’ve learned, your risk is relatively low.
But whatever wealth-building approach you take, you’ve got to keep your risk in check. It’s not that you shouldn’t take risks, but the risks you take should be calculated. One of the tools we use in trading is the “risk-reward ratio” -- basically, how much risk you’re willing to take on for how much potential reward.
You can apply this line of thinking to just about anything in your life. If there’s more risk than there is reward, stay away. But if there’s more potential for reward than there is risk of loss, you may be looking at a great opportunity you should take.
Related: Too Fast, Too Careful: The Struggle to Find Your Growth Sweet Spot

4. Millionaires are generous.

Take a lesson from generous billionaires Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Carl Icahn and Ken Langore. Giving money can feel just as good (if not better) than earning it.
I’ve recently started my own charitable foundation in order to give back $2 million to my community, and I have to tell you, it feels amazing. I wish I hadn’t waited so long to get started, but I’m looking forward to making up for lost time.

5. Millionaires never stop learning.

This is such a big one. Millionaires love to learn because they’re always looking for ways to expand their skill sets and get ahead in their fields. They read books, watch documentaries, study educational materials and talk to others who can give them more information. Millionaires know that knowledge is power, and they stop at nothing to get it.
No matter what your net worth is right now, you can put this tip into practice today. If you’re learning to trade penny stocks, you can watch videos, read SEC statements, study stock charts or learn from others in industry chat rooms. You can do all of these things for free, but the value of what you learn will be worth so much more in the long run.
Which of these habits could you add to your life? Commit today to making at least one change that puts you on the path to becoming a millionaire.

Stop Saying You Don't Have Time to Start a Business. Make Time With These 6 Tips.

Think of how many amazing business ideas are left on the shelf to collect dust because they are not pursued. Dreams are left to die because their creators assumed that he or she didn’t have the time to start a business. What a horrible excuse.
If you have an idea for a business, go for it. Why? Because if you don’t, you are going to regret it and you might be passing on a truly amazing experience.
“I’ll start it next year.” What if there isn’t a next year?
“I’m not sure if now is the time.” If you don’t do it, someone else will.
“I don’t have the time now.” Make the time.
Related: Create a '26-Hour Day' With This Simple Strategy
Here are six tips to help you start a business, even if you have a full-time job or feel like you don’t have the time.

1. Wean yourself off social media.

What did Richard Branson or Mark Cuban have for dinner last night? Who was their #WCW? What #TBT picture did they post this week? You probably aren’t going to find the answers to these questions -- they aren’t glued to social media 24/7 like 99 percent of the population.
There is nothing wrong with social media, but if you are serious about starting a business, think of how much extra time you could round up if you scaled down your social-media use. You don’t have to quit cold turkey, but less hashtags and more time devoted to bringing your business idea to life will help you realize your dream.

2. Stop watching marathon sessions of TV shows.

I have a confession to make -- I have never watched a single episode of Game of Thrones. Seriously. I wish I had a dollar for every time I heard someone mention a “Game of Thrones marathon” when asked what their plans were for the evening or weekend.
I know people that constantly talk to me about how they would love to start a business and complain about not having extra time -- the same people that piss away hours every week watching reruns of a TV series they have already seen multiple times. I can’t comprehend that thought process. Cut back on TV binging and watch how much extra time you now have for your business.

3. Organize personal errands.

Everyone has personal errands and responsibilities -- there is no way around them. While you can’t avoid things such as grocery shopping, trips to the bank, shopping and other miscellaneous errands, you can structure them in a way that makes you more efficient.
When you have structure, it eliminates wasted time trying to figure out when to get tasks accomplished. For example, do your grocery shopping early on Tuesday mornings after the gym and hit the post office on Wednesdays on your way home. A very simple, but concrete, personal errand schedule will free up a lot of extra time that was once wasted trying to schedule these little tasks.
Related: Stop Wasting Time, Especially When It Comes to Social Media

4. Wake up early and stay up late.

Anyone can start a business, even those that are currently working a full-time job. Do you currently wake up at 8 a.m. just in time to shower and make it to your job at 9 a.m.? Then wake up at 6 a.m. and work on your business idea for two solid hours.
A full-time job is just an excuse -- if you want it bad enough you will make sacrifices. I hear many people say they can’t find extra time because they have a family and small children. When you get home from work, play with your kids, eat dinner with the family and then switch into business-building mode after you put the little ones to sleep. Nobody said it would be easy, right?

5. Set realistic goals.

It’s important that you set realistic goals for yourself from the very beginning. If you can only dedicate one hour to your business every day, then so be it. Understand that it will take longer, but if you are constantly picking away at small goals that help you reach your main goal, you are going to eventually get there. Start now.
The worst thing you can do is continue to make excuses. Imagine if you said, “I’ll start my business when I have more free time” every day to yourself for six months. You would waste 180 hours that could have been dedicated to your business.

6. Convert "downtime" to "business-development" time.

If you take public transportation to work every day, allocate that time to your business. Instead of playing Candy Crush Saga on your phone while you ride the subway, use that time to complete small tasks related to your business.
Rather than leaving the office to grab lunch, pack a lunch and eat it at your desk while you work on your business. Even just an extra 30 to 45 minutes per day is valuable time invested in your business dream. Run through your typical day in your head and find downtime that you can convert into a more productive and beneficial block of time.
When you decide to take the plunge and start a business, check out my company’s online-marketing blog for free tips and consider joining my private business forum.
What are some other ways to make time to start a business? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.

How to Make the Jump From Employee to Entrepreneur in 5 Steps

What I have to say may upset you, or it may inspire you: We all have amazing dreams and aspirations, but many people will never achieve them because they were set up to live a mediocre life.
When you look at our society and the way you were raised, you were taught to get good grades in school so you could get into a good college. Once you got your acceptance letter you studied hard so you could get a good job. The day came where you put on your cap and gown, walked across the stage and began your life in the professional world with the hopes of climbing the corporate ladder fast.
You work hard so one day you can save up enough money to retire. Fast-forward 20 years and you’re in your 40s working a job that doesn’t fulfill you and you ask: Is this all life is? Am I doomed to a life of mediocrity?
Related: 6 Reasons to Reconsider Your Planned Corporate Escape
Entrepreneur and consultant Justin Lafazan and I discussed this topic. Justin’s perspective is that people are starting to challenge the status quo and redefine what the path to success looks like.
So how can you stop being a cog in someone else’s machine and venture out into the world of entrepreneurship? Here is how you can take control of your life and switch from employee to entrepreneur:

1. Recognize that you have a clean slate in front of you.

If you’re still reading this, then you probably want to have the choice of leaving your current job for your own business. Great!
First, you first have to recognize that you have a clean slate in front of you. I have a lot of friends who began their careers as CPAs and do not feel that they spend their days living their true calling. Yet so many of them feel that if they were to start a business, they would have to leverage their CPA.
Don’t let your past experience be a weight that holds you down from doing what you were born to do!

2. Identify what you were born to do.

How do you figure this out? While there is no cookie-cutter approach, Justin recommended the following:

• Identify your passions. What do you love to do?
• Identify your skills. What are you really good at?
• Identify your values. What really matters to you?
• Find the intersection of those three.

Related: A 3-Step Formula to Success -- Really
This exercise does not work like a gumball machine where you put a quarter in and out pops your life’s calling. What it will do is help you ask yourself the right questions every day, which over time will build your awareness and help you navigate your path.

3. Find the right mentors.

At this point you have a choice. You can try to navigate this process on your own and waste a lot of time and money, or you can find people who have done this before and let them help you.

4. Turn your day job into a game.

We all have 24 hours in a day, yet how is it that some people are able to get so much more done? It all boils down to efficiency. The faster and better you get something done, the more time you free up to take on the next task.
Now that you have set the intention of starting your own business you will need to free up some time. The best way to do this is to turn your day job into a game. With my sales job, I ask myself every day, “How can I earn twice as much income working half the time?”
Questions such as this will change the way you view your job and get you excited about getting things done. This will help you multiply your time exponentially.
Go ahead and come up with your own empowering questions and turn your job into a game!

5. Give yourself the choice to burn the ship once you’re got another boat.

Many people preach burning the ships so you have no option other than to succeed. That has worked for some and compromised others. When you have to put a roof over your family’s head and food on the table, you may want to take a more conservative approach.
You’ve committed to performing at your day job at the highest level so you can free up time to build your business on the side. Once your business gets to a point where you have replaced your income you can choose to burn the ship, or not. Either way, you have the choice.
While society has set you up to live a mediocre life, at the end of the day it’s your life and you are accountable for it. You have made the investment in yourself, now go take action and live an extraordinary life!

How to Make the Jump From Employee to Entrepreneur in 5 Steps

What I have to say may upset you, or it may inspire you: We all have amazing dreams and aspirations, but many people will never achieve them because they were set up to live a mediocre life.
When you look at our society and the way you were raised, you were taught to get good grades in school so you could get into a good college. Once you got your acceptance letter you studied hard so you could get a good job. The day came where you put on your cap and gown, walked across the stage and began your life in the professional world with the hopes of climbing the corporate ladder fast.
You work hard so one day you can save up enough money to retire. Fast-forward 20 years and you’re in your 40s working a job that doesn’t fulfill you and you ask: Is this all life is? Am I doomed to a life of mediocrity?
Related: 6 Reasons to Reconsider Your Planned Corporate Escape
Entrepreneur and consultant Justin Lafazan and I discussed this topic. Justin’s perspective is that people are starting to challenge the status quo and redefine what the path to success looks like.
So how can you stop being a cog in someone else’s machine and venture out into the world of entrepreneurship? Here is how you can take control of your life and switch from employee to entrepreneur:

1. Recognize that you have a clean slate in front of you.

If you’re still reading this, then you probably want to have the choice of leaving your current job for your own business. Great!
First, you first have to recognize that you have a clean slate in front of you. I have a lot of friends who began their careers as CPAs and do not feel that they spend their days living their true calling. Yet so many of them feel that if they were to start a business, they would have to leverage their CPA.
Don’t let your past experience be a weight that holds you down from doing what you were born to do!

2. Identify what you were born to do.

How do you figure this out? While there is no cookie-cutter approach, Justin recommended the following:

• Identify your passions. What do you love to do?
• Identify your skills. What are you really good at?
• Identify your values. What really matters to you?
• Find the intersection of those three.

Related: A 3-Step Formula to Success -- Really
This exercise does not work like a gumball machine where you put a quarter in and out pops your life’s calling. What it will do is help you ask yourself the right questions every day, which over time will build your awareness and help you navigate your path.

3. Find the right mentors.

At this point you have a choice. You can try to navigate this process on your own and waste a lot of time and money, or you can find people who have done this before and let them help you.

4. Turn your day job into a game.

We all have 24 hours in a day, yet how is it that some people are able to get so much more done? It all boils down to efficiency. The faster and better you get something done, the more time you free up to take on the next task.
Now that you have set the intention of starting your own business you will need to free up some time. The best way to do this is to turn your day job into a game. With my sales job, I ask myself every day, “How can I earn twice as much income working half the time?”
Questions such as this will change the way you view your job and get you excited about getting things done. This will help you multiply your time exponentially.
Go ahead and come up with your own empowering questions and turn your job into a game!

5. Give yourself the choice to burn the ship once you’re got another boat.

Many people preach burning the ships so you have no option other than to succeed. That has worked for some and compromised others. When you have to put a roof over your family’s head and food on the table, you may want to take a more conservative approach.
You’ve committed to performing at your day job at the highest level so you can free up time to build your business on the side. Once your business gets to a point where you have replaced your income you can choose to burn the ship, or not. Either way, you have the choice.
While society has set you up to live a mediocre life, at the end of the day it’s your life and you are accountable for it. You have made the investment in yourself, now go take action and live an extraordinary life!

Banks In Dilemma Over Idle $5bn Deposits

LAGOS — Indications emerged, yesterday, that banks in the country are now in a dilemma on what to do with an estimated $5 billion that is currently idle in their vaults.

1000-naira-notesBanks, it was gathered, have their vaults full of dollars that they do not know how to dispose them. It is funds they can neither lend to other banks nor sell to CBN, and the only option open to them is to sell.

Bank foreign exchange officers, who spoke to Vanguard. said that as of today, no bank will buy dollar from anybody. The source said it is not for any other thing but the fact that the banks have more than enough in their vaults.

The dollars being sold by banks for BTA and PTA, they say, have no direct relationship with the foreign reserve, hence the marginal increase in the nation’s external reserve despite continued downward trend in crude oil prices.

Vanguard gathered that banks have been pleading with the CBN to allow them sell off their dollar holdings when the apex bank could not supply enough dollars to fund customers’ request for BTA and PTA. It was learnt that when the CBN finally gave its nod recently, the banks immediately called on their customers and the public to buy Basic Travelling Allowance from designated banks.
Vanguard learned that there is more than $5 billion within the economy that are still in the hands of individuals outside the banking system.

It also learned from top bankers that before the general elections, there was scarcity of foreign exchange in the banking system and that banks were allocated about $30,000 for sale to customers that requested for BTA, which was grossly inadequate for most banks.

He said immediately after the election, banks started receiving dollar deposits in millions per day. This, he said, was done mainly by politicians, who got dollars during the electioneering campaign, which resulted in banks’ vaults stocked with dollar deposits that can neither be given out as loans nor transferred as it would be regarded as money laundering.

A bank customer, who used funds from a domiciliary account to support his ward’s visa application before the glut of the dollar in the system, said the bank made it clear it could not transfer the fund from the child’s domiciliary account to the parent’s account after the visa was secured.

The parent said the bank added that if the child travels abroad, the fund cannot be withdrawn by the parent even if the child had already signed a withdrawal form for the parent’s use when the money is needed.

Banks refuse to accept dollar cash deposits
Banks are now refusing to accept any form of dollar cash deposits and even insist that transfer from one domiciliary account to another in the same bank will be regarded as a form of cash deposit that regulators will frown at.

According to them, the rules are now very stringent and no bank wants to be on the wrong side of the law. In one of the banks, Vanguard learned that no local bank will undertake to do transfer for Nigerian parents whose wards are in schools abroad which accommodation are not directly linked to the school.

Nigerian banks, they added, will also not do a third party transfer. Unfortunately for many Nigerian parents whose wards are enrolled in masters’ programmes in the United Kingdom, many universities in the UK do not provide direct accommodation for second degree students and such students have to contract accommodation with property owners.

Situation worrisome

The situation has become worrisome to many as those who attempted to change huge sums at the unofficial market were given rates they considered ridiculous.

A roadside forex dealer told Vanguard that they do dollar exchange transactions for desperate Nigerians at the rate of between N198 and N203 to the dollar whereas they sell at N225 to the dollar.
Vanguard gathered that many parents with genuine need of transfer to pay for student accommodation in London are desperately looking for alternative means.

A parent, who spoke to Vanguard, said the new policy has created a new form of business for some Nigerians living abroad who are now exploiting the situation. He said that those who have pounds and are living in London sometimes do agree to help pay for student accommodation but ask for an exchange rate of N358 to the dollar.

It will be recalled that the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, recently proscribed acceptance of forex cash deposits by banks operating in the country.

Forex market now segmented into four layers
Reacting to the ban, Managing Director, Financial Derivatives Company Limited (FDC), Mr. Bismarck Rewane, in his monthly economic news and views entitled, “Market versus Economy,” presented at the Lagos Business School’s executive breakfast meeting, said: “The forex market is now segmented into four layers. The differential between the segments will widen as the ability to move between segments becomes more difficult and risky.

“The desperation for electronic dollars will push that market to N250. Cash dollars will be at N240. The magnitude of the currency value adjustment will be dependent on when the subsidy is removed.”
He listed them to include the interbank foreign exchange market (IFEM), the BDC rate, rate at which exchange proceeds are converted into Naira and electronic transfer rate.

He said: “The electronic transfer rate and the cash rate were the same before. But now, banks will not accept dollar cash again. When I get dollars, for me to transfer it is going to be too costly.”

The CBN in an advertorial in several newspapers had, however, reiterated that all legitimate requests for foreign currency for eligible transactions, normally referred to as “invisibles,” such as remittances for school fees, student maintenance allowances, BTA, PTA, medical and other eligible transactions, shall be fully met at the official/interbank exchange rate. A statement from the CBN stated that already all the legitimate demands for such transactions through recognised channels have been fully met by CBN.

According to the statement, “the CBN hereby directs all authorised dealers in foreign exchange in Nigeria to henceforth treat as top priority all legitimate demand for foreign exchange for eligible transactions.

“The CBN once again advises individuals that wish to source foreign currency for such eligible transactions to approach their banks with their legitimate demand as the CBN has made adequate provisions of foreign currency for all such legitimate and eligible purposes.

“Furthermore, holders of Naira-denominated debit and credit cards shall continue to have access to the use of their cards at ATM machines in any part of the world but subject to the annual limit of $50,000. ATM withdrawals shall continue to be a maximum of $300 per day.”

In a related development, Guaranty Trust Bank Plc (GTBank), informed its customers of its decision to reduce the daily international spending limit on their Naira MasterCard to $300.


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