LAGOS SEPTEMBER 22ND (NEWSRANGERS)-Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Chieftain and former Delta State Gubernatorial aspirant, Chief Sunny Onuesoke has faulted Central Banks of Nigeria (CBN) threat to shut Aboki Fx online publication over the daily depreciation of the Naira to foreign currencies.
Recall that CBN had said that it will shut down the operations of Aboki FX, a website providing currency exchange rate information, which the bank described as an illegal and criminal platform.
The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, who disclosed this while fielding questions after the Monetary policy committee’s two-day meeting in Abuja on Friday, noted that the bank also plans to prosecute the owner of the platform, Olusegun Oniwinde.
Reacting to the CBN threat while addressing journalists at Abuja, the PDP Chieftain disclosed that the apex bank’s problem is that it choose to treat the symptoms rather than the sickness itself in resolving the daily depreciation of the Naira at the Forex market. He stated that the website’s closure has anything to do with Nigeria’s ailing economy.
According to him, Aboki FX is an online publication that is merely reporting on the market supply and demand of the Naira and do not see them fixing price of exchange rate. He stressed that it is rather poor policies and very bad economy of Nigeria that is resulting in runaway exchange rate of dollar and naira.
“The level of crass ignorance being displayed by Nigerian officials is damn alarming. Is Aboki FX selling forex or just collating information across the streets of Nigeria to inform the public of the situation of things? Is Aboki FX the one collecting dollars from CBN and selling through the commercial banks to roadside mallams who in turn sell to the public at exorbitant rates?
“Well, shutting down the website may help dowse speculation but will not address the instability and the racketeering going on in our commercial banks. Nothing has changed since the banks were instructed to sell forex directly to customers and in fact the situation is worse.
“I am afraid the CBN is waging a lost battle here. When a commodity is scarce prices go higher and people will naturally value the item more. The CBN should focus on ways to make the dollars available to all on the street or provide alternative currency routes for Nigerians to trade or produce foreign desired goods at home,” he advised.
Onuesoke advised CBN to look beyond the abokifx issues on Naira depreciation, adding that the fall of the Naira is because many of the illegal transactions in Nigeria are being carried out in dollar.
According to him, “Can you imagine kick back for government contracts are paid in dollar cash. Banks, NFIU, EFCC and others assigned to monitor big ticket cash flows/transactions are not doing their jobs. A lots of things are wrong. Also some local transactions like school fees, rents, hotel bill and others are now being paid for in dollar when we are in Nigeria spending Naira.”
To stop the downward trending of the Naira, Onuesoke advised that Parallel market should be scrapped, while forex should be sold in Banks and at a single rate like everywhere in the world.