Forex Infractions: Regulator warns operators as abokiFX denies market manipulations

*The online Foreign Exchange update platform denies any manipulations in the Forex market, saying it usually gets its information from Bureau De Change operators in the country

Isola Moses | ConsumerConnect

Sequel to the recent purported Foreign Exchange (Forex) market distortions, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had threatened to shut down abokiFX, one of the online Foreign Exchange update platforms in the country.

ConsumerConnect reports Mr. Godwin Emefiele, Governor of CBN, who announced this development, also touched on the burning issue during a media briefing after the Monetary Policy Committee’s (MPC) two-day meeting Friday, September 17, in Abuja, FCT, said that members of the Committee felt that tightening would contract the current level of system liquidity, and reduce demand pressure on the Forex market in the economy.

Emefiele warned the Bankers’ Bank would go after any illegal operators in the Forex market ecosystem in Nigeria.

According to him, the move is aimed at stopping such illicit operators from frustrating the CBN’s policy measures towards a stable Naira.

The Central Bank of Nigeria also maintains that it cannot continue to sell Dollars to people who purchase arms to hurt Nigerian consumers.

Emefiele also explained that the country’s banking and financial markets regulator is determined to eliminate the activities of illegal Forex traders in the economy.

The CBN remains the only national bank in the world that will dip its hand in the country’s reserves to sell Dollars to Bureau de Change operators in the market.

Emefiele declared: “Nobody ever mentions the rate of Bureau de Change in the city of London.

“It really beats my imagination that Nigeria carried on with this kind of practice that tended to support illegal activities of people who are involved in graft and corrupt practices.”

He also explained: “We have supported the activities of those who illegally buy foreign exchange from this illegal market, carry them in aircraft out of the country, and go to buy arms and ammunition and bring them into the country to commit crimes.

“We, the Central Bank, take our country’s dollars and sell to people to buy arms and ammunition to come and hurt us.

“That is what we are saying that people want us to do, we cannot do that any longer.”

AbokiFX responds to allegation of Forex market manipulations in Nigeria

However, in its response to the Bank’s allegation against it, abokiFX in a statement issued Friday said that it would no longer provide daily updates on Forex rates on its online platform for now, and hoped that the Naira would stabilise.

ConsumerConnect reports the FX firm’s decision resulted from the banking sector regulator’s complaints, that it is ‘responsible for the current crisis in the Forex market’, a situation which has practically brought the Naira to its knees in recent weeks.

The firm in the statement said: “Aboki FX is fully functional but we will not be publishing any form of rates on our platform for now. We sincerely hope this suspension will lead to the Naira appreciation from next week.

“With our decision to temporarily suspend online rate publication, we are aware that there will be limited visibility of parallel rates information which will impact decision making for many.”

The online platform equally denied any manipulations in the country’s Forex market, saying, that there is no way it could have such power as it does not trade in Forex.

AbokiFX also clarified that it usually gets its information from Bureau De Change (BDC) operators in Lagos.

The statement further noted: “None of our data source providers know who we are or what their rates are being used for.

“This is to avoid any manipulation of rates. Our staff have a daily routine of going to the market to gather rates as all the BDCs in the country have their rates clearly displayed on their rates board and parallel market dealers give the information away freely.

“All we do is collate all that information and display it on all our platforms daily.”

On allegations of fraud levelled against Olusegun Oniwinde, Founder of abokiFX, the company said the Bank did not prove such allegations.

The statement added: “Aboki FX purely provides benchmark parallel rate information, which helps guide our users in almost 200 countries across the world.

“Aboki FX does not trade FX, which we have always maintained in our e-mails and social media platforms.”

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