Hard Currency Exchange Offices to Open in the Cities That Attract Foreign Visitors
Public banks are rushing to get closer to the citizen more, within the framework of instructions they received from the higher authorities in the country, to play an important role in attracting parallel market funds that President Abdelmadjid Tebboune had previously estimated at $90 billion, as they initiated procedures for opening exchange offices in the regions that attract tourists, especially foreign visitors.
In this context, the External Bank of Algeria inaugurated, on Tuesday, an exchange office at the level of Djanet airport in Illizi (southern Algeria), coinciding with the opening of a direct line between Djanet airport and Paris Charles de Gaulle airport, as it is important during the New Year celebrations, especially New Year’s Eve, to activate this office to exchange foreign visitors’ money, and the expatriates flocking to the region, knowing that a million tourists are expected to come to the Algerian desert during this period.
According to the same source, this measure aims to get closer to customers, especially foreign visitors of Algeria, and to facilitate the process of transferring hard currency, as an automatic distributor of the External Bank of Algeria was also launched at the airport, as public banks have adopted several measures in recent months to get closer to citizens, and also at the level of the areas where the largest number of tourists are located.
In this context, Oran (western Algeria) was transformed into a quasi-digital city during the Mediterranean Games last June, through the deployment of automatic distributors and electronic payment machines across stadiums, hotels and the Mediterranean city, which are the same measures that were adopted at the level of the region of residence of Arab delegations during the Arab summit in Algeria, and currently, the banks are approaching foreign visitors coinciding with New Year’s celebrations.
Prime Minister Aimene Benabderrahmane said previously in his answer to the MPs’ questions at the end of presenting the general policy statement two months ago, that 46 foreign currency exchange offices had been approved and 76 exchange authorizations were granted to several hotels, adding that these offices did not prove their effectiveness, as among 46 exchange approved offices, 43 of them gave up the license, and the remaining three offices did not achieve any turnover, due to inactivity, and with the intention of better framing these offices and strengthening their role, the Prime Minister explained that this issue was included in the draft amendment to the monetary and loan law that was completed.
According to official figures, there are 19 banks in Algeria, while the number of bank cards is three 3.230.875 cards until this December, the number of electronic money distributors is 1351, and the number of electronic payment devices “TPO” has reached 40.000 in addition to 84 approved websites and 279 web merchants involved in the banking electronic payment system, while 2.874 million e-commerce transactions have been conducted since its launch in 2016
