After over two years the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) banned AbokiFX for publishing parallel market foreign exchange (FX) rates online, the Association of Bureau De Change Operators of Nigeria (ABCON) has again initiated moves to authorize the publication of the black-market rates of the Naira against other foreign currencies on online platforms.
The President of the association, Aminu Gwadabe, was quoted by Nairametrics, a leading online platform in Nigeria, as saying that the association is already proposing to the monetary authorities to allow BDCs to restart the online public display of exchange rates.
According to him, as part of the proposal, the ABCON is upgrading the functionality of their existing website to compete with other platforms in the economy.
Gwadabe maintained that move would be another in a long line of departures from the measures implemented by the former central bank leadership, which sought to stringently regulate BDC operations and reduce the prominence of the unofficial market.
It would be recalled that in September 2021, the apex bank banned AbokiFX from publishing black market FX rates of the Naira online over alleged “illegal activities that undermine the economy.“
The former CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, said that the owner of AbokiFX, Oniwinde Adedotun, was “an illegal FX dealer that has inflow and sold tens of millions of FX to several Nigerian companies in contravention of the FX law, he directly benefits from the rates he quotes daily on his website.”
As AbokiFX discontinued the daily publication of the black-market exchange rates, another platform Naijabdcs.com owned by ABCON also stopped publishing the rates online.
Gwadade, while speaking to Bloomberg at the time on the step, linked the ABCON’s action to the apex bank’s directive which “outlawed the publication of any parallel market rates”.
As expected, Emefiele confirmed Gwadabe’s stance and told journalists in 2021 that he was sorry to “say that I do not, and I do not intend to recognise any FX in the market.”
