The Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA) has sold 4.5 million dollars to around 9,000 people since the country's central bank took over the sale of dollars to the public.
Starting from the 20th of last month, MMA has sold 4.5 million dollars (MVR 64.9 million) at a rate of 500 dollar per ticket for 8,985 tickets. MMA is only offering the exchanges for those going abroad for medication or holidays.
Statistics show that USD2.8 million (MVR 42.7 million) are sold to 5,636 tickets per week.
The amount of travelers abroad has increased due to the holiday season, and the demand for dollars has risen along with it. The dollar exchange was switched to MMA due to the long queues forming outside local banks and the inconvenience caused to customers.
The banks have informed that they were involved in the sale of 4.3 million dollars per week since MMA assigned the task back in 2014. Annually more than USD200 million, which is 32% of the dollars coming into MMA each year, is sold to the public. Around USD50 million dollars been exchanged with the public before the process had been switched back to MMA.
MMA has established 10 special counters to deal with customers seeking dollars. Each counter deals with around 399 customers daily, and service starts at 9:00 AM and continues on till 6:00 PM. The change has resulted in shorter queues, and a much shorter wait time of just 15 minutes to complete the exchange.
MMA will continue the sale of dollars till the 7th of next January. The next stop for the dollar exchange will be at the departure lounge of the airport.