Abokifx responds to Godwin Emefiele's outburst

The Central bank of Nigeria (CBN) recently got into fisticuffs with online forex rates publication, abokifx owned by a Mr Adedotun Oniwinde, over the variance between the official rate and the black market rate of the Naira against other currencies, both of which Aboki fx publishes.

According to the CBN governor Godwin Emefiele, the apex bank has been studying the activities of abokiFX in the last two and half years. In a video that went viral days ago, the CBN governor in a press conference said, “… there was a time we asked our colleagues to call the so-called owner od abokiFX to ask how he came about advertising those rates… (He is) a Nigerian, who lives in England and conducting those nefarious activities on our economy. It is an economic sabotage and we will pursue him wherever he is… We will report him to international security agencies. We will track him. Mr Oniwinde, we will find you,” the CBN governor said.

He added, “Has Nigerians ever asked how abokifx collects his data he publishes on his website? How many BDCs can claim that they have either seen a staff of abokifx coming to ask for daily rates or how many BDCs send daily returns on exchange rate to abokifx? How then do they determine what the rate is and they post them illegally on their website? How can an unlicensed single person be the one that sets change rate (in our country)? How come he sets exchange rate in our own currency? Why is he not setting exchange rate for pounds & dollars, or pounds and South African rand and Ghana Cedi? Why target Nigeria?”

In what appears to be a response to the CBN governors questions and comments, abokifx suspended the publication of FX rates on its platform and published an opinion piece by The Cable’s Mayowa Tijani stating, “… on the first day abokifx didn’t publish rates, there was a vacuum as the absence of the platforms updates meant there was no other authority on fx rates people could refer to.

The article also said shutting down abokifx could lead to inconsistent Naira-dollar rates across the country and would not solve the problem of demand and supply of dollars in Nigeria which needs a more structural, long term solution.

On its part, the Naira continues to depreciate against the dollar and while some Nigerians insist the CBN gov resigns on grounds that his decision to make abokifx a priority over the state of the Naira to other currencies at this time is unhelpful, others posit that contrary to what the CBN governor said, abokifx has absolutely no effect on the rise and fall of the Naira and another school of thought say there may be a part, albeit little, that the platform is playing in the fall of the Naira daily.