Aboki FX suspends Naira exchange rate update amid CBN threat

*Aboki FX uses over 25 bank accounts to manipulate exchange rate-CBN

Miotolani Oseni

AbokiFX, a web platform that reports movements in the foreign exchange market, has suspended operations, as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) placed its owners on investigations. The platform said this in a notice posted on its website at the weekend.

The Central Bank of Nigeria Governor, Godwin Emefiele, at the end of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting on Friday in Abuja, had said that the apex bank will go after the owner of Aboki FX, Oniwinde Adedotun.

The apex bank governor said the owner of the website, a London based Nigerian, Adedotun, would be made to face the full wrath of the law for economic sabotage.

This is based on the rate of the rise of the naira on the parallel market which is currently trading at N570/dollar.

Speaking on the allegations, Emefiele noted that Adedotun used his website for forex manipulations and speculations by purchasing forex to make a profit describing him as an illegal forex trader.

Emefiele revealed that the company was registered in the UK in November 2015, adding that the owner had claimed that there are other Nigerians who have a significant interest in the business.

But he does not want to name them. So, who are these significant persons behind him?

Why are they hiding? This is on UK’s finding records and we will go there and conduct those investigations.

He and the company have over 25 bank accounts with about eight banks in both Naira and dollar with significant turnover also showing him simply milking the system through speculative activities on the Naira and collecting his proceeds in cash through a particular ATM in London,” he added.

He said that CBN preliminary findings revealed that AbokiFX was built for the purpose of foreign exchange manipulations and speculations.

“He gets Naira notes and uses it to purchase dollars, take a position and change the rates over a given period, sell the dollars they purchased and make a profit.

This is completely illegal; it is unacceptable and we will pursue them,” he added. He warned companies patronising AbokiFX to desist or face CBN sanction.

But in a statement on Friday evening, abokiFX distanced itself from the allegations, saying the platform is solely for parallel rate information and not trading.

“Abokifx has taken the decision, today, 17th of September 2021, to temporarily suspend rate updates on all our platforms until we get better clarity of the situation,” the statement reads.

“Final rates have been posted this evening, but the abokiFX news section and the Crypto rates section will still be active.

“abokiFX was established in 2014 as a research and information service company, to conduct market research and gather data on the parallel market rates.

We also wanted to provide some transparency around the parallel market with the available information technology.

“abokiFX purely provided benchmark parallel rate information which helps guide our users in almost 200 countries across the world.

“abokiFX does NOT TRADe FX, which we have always maintained in our emails and social media platforms.”

The platform said it has not received any official communication from any government agencies and its accounts are intact.

“All allegations against our director are yet to be confirmed but we at abokiFX DO NOT trade FX neither do we manipulate parallel market rates”, the statement adds.

“Outside the media allegation, we have not received any communication from any government body and our accounts are not closed as stipulated in the media.