By John Ikani
AbokiFX, a popular online platform that publishes daily foreign exchange rates in the parallel market, has resumed operations after a two-year hiatus.
The platform was forced to suspend its operations in September 2021 after the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, accused it of sabotaging the Nigerian economy.
It was a well-known unofficial platform that tracked black market forex trade when Nigeria had a chaotic multiple forex markets system.
Emefiele claimed that AbokiFX was publishing speculative black market rates to manipulate the system.
However, the platform’s founder, Oniwinde Adedotun, denied these allegations, saying that AbokiFX was simply providing a service to its users.
With Emefiele now facing allegations of corruption and stuck in the custody of the Department of State Services (DSS), AbokiFX has decided to resume its operations.
Checks by Heritage Times [HT] confirmed that it is now posting parallel market rates for the naira against the dollar, pound, and euro.
After President Bola Tinubu was inaugurated on May 29, he unified the markets in June shortly after suspending Emefiele over unclear corruption allegations.
The official has not yet been charged in court and has made attempts to regain his freedom while investigations continue.
In his public dispute with AbokiFX, Emefiele challenged the founder, Oniwinde Adedotun, to come to his office and fight him. He accused Adedotun of avoiding numerous attempts to contact him to learn more about AbokiFX’s model.
He also accused the founder of being an illegal forex dealer who sold tens of millions of naira in forex to numerous Nigerian companies in violation of forex regulations, while also directly benefiting from the daily rates advertised by AbokiFX.
“It is an economic sabotage and we’ll pursue him wherever he is. We will report him to international security agencies.
“We’ll track him, Mr Oniwinde, we’ll find you, because we cannot allow you to continue to conduct an illegal activity that kills our economy,” he said at a press conference.
AbokiFX quickly ceased posting rates after Emefiele stated that orders had been given to pursue the website.
The suspension of operations did not improve the black market exchange rate of the naira, as many supporters of the CBN’s actions at the time had hoped.
Emefiele was the CBN’s top official for nine years before his suspension. He was first appointed by former President Goodluck Jonathan in 2014, and reappointed the immediate-past President Muhammadu Buhari.
