Economy
AbokiFX Suspends Parallel Market Exchange Rate Updates
By Dipo Olowookere
The popular website that tracks the exchange rate of the Naira to the major foreign currencies, AbokiFX, has announced the suspension of its updates pending when it gets a “better clarity” of the allegation of FX manipulations levelled against it by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
Governor of the CBN, Mr Godwin Emefiele, had insinuated on Friday that the platform was responsible for the recent fall of the local currency at the parallel market.
Mr Emefiele said it had been monitoring activities of the website for the past two years, alleging that its owner, Mr Oniwinde Olusegun Adedotun, was trading forex and manipulating figures to cause panic in the financial system, vowing to ensure he is prosecuted.
But in a statement issued on Friday, the platform said, “We do not trade FX neither (sic) do we have the power to manipulate the rates as we DO NOT CREATE the rates.”
It stressed that, “We ONLY publish what we source on the streets of Lagos, hence the phrase, Lagos Parallel Rates.”
AbokiFX explained that, “The rates sourced are carefully collated, reviewed and a mean rate is published from the data pool. This explains our three daily updates – * Morning, ** Midday, ***Evening.”
“Sometimes, rates come in late but we have to wait for the full set of rates before they are published, to prevent volatility of rates,” it further noted in the statement.
The website said, for now, it will not publish the parallel market rates but will keep updating its news and crypto rates sections until further notice.
“We sincerely hope this suspension will lead to the Naira appreciation from next week,” it stated, adding that, “With our decision to temporarily suspend online rate publication, we are aware that there will be limited visibility of parallel rates information, which will impact decision making for many.”
Below is the unedited statement from the firm;
AbokiFX has taken the decision today, the 17th of September 2021, to temporarily suspend rate updates on all our platforms, until we get better clarity of the situation.
Final rates have been posted this evening but the abokiFX news section and the Crypt° rates section will still be active.
WHO WE ARE
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 availability of information technology.
abokiFX purely provides 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.
We do not Trade FX neither do we have the power to manipulate the rates as we DO NOT CREATE the rates.
We are the only entity in Nigeria that has a full set of parallel rates, right from our inception in 2014 when the exchange rate was trading at N166 to Sl.
We collated data for years before we started publishing, as we realised the demand increased for our historical data.
To most users of our platforms, we are just a parallel rates board but to many institutions, ranging frorn IVY league universities, to global businesses and research centres, we area keysource of data, especially, historical data (almost a decade’s worth of data on parallel rates).
Companies use our data for their internal and external audits as well as planning and budgeting.
We ONLY publish what we source on the streets of Lagos, hence the phrase, Lagos Parallel Rates. The rates sourced are carefully collated, reviewed and a mean rate is published from the data pool. This explains our three daily updates – * Morning, ** Midday, ***Evening.
Sometimes, rates come in late but we have to wait for the full set of rates before they are published, to prevent volatility of rates.
None of our data source providers know who we are or what their rates are being used for. This is to avoid any manipulation of rates.
Our staff have a daily routine of going to the market to gather rates, as all the BDCs in the country have their rates clearly displayed on their rates board and parallel market rate dealers give the information away freely.
All we do is collate all that information and display it on all our platforms daily.
REPLAY OF 2017 vs 2021
In 2017, Nigeria experienced an FX crises and the Naira depreciated to over N500/$1. abokiFX was accused of manipulating the parallel market rates.
Once liquidity was injected, the Naira appreciated and we published the appreciation which is basically what we do.
2021 has seen a similar scenario with the naira depreciating and we have published what we have been given, which has led some to believe we are manipulating the market. Yet no one can complain about our rates deviating +/- 2% from the parallel market rates when they patronise the dealers in the rnarket.
If we do not create the rates, how then can we control the rates. Our only sources of income have been our API and advert sales.
ALLEGATIONS AGAINST OUR DIRECTOR
All allegations against our director are yet to be confirrned but we at abokiFX DO NOT trade FX neither do we manipulate parallel rnarket rates.
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.
WAY FORWARD
abokiFX is fully functional BUT we will not be publishing any form of rates on our platforms for now. We sincerely hope this suspension will lead to the Naira appreciation from next week. With our decision to temporarily suspend online rate publication, we are aware that there will be limited visibility of parallel rates information which will impact decision making for rnany.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Naira further slipped against the United States Dollar by N2.33 or 0.17 per cent to N1,364.88/$1 from N1,362.55/$1 in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEX) on Thursday, August 6.
In the same vein, the domestic currency weakened against the Pound Sterling in the official FX market by 71 Kobo yesterday to trade at N1,838.09/£1, in contrast to Wednesday’s value of N1,837.38/£1, but against the Euro, it gained 45 Kobo to close at N1,574.80/€1 compared with the previous day’s N1,575.25/€1.
At the GTBank FX desk, the Naira improved its value against the US Dollar by N4 on Thursday to quote at N1,369/$1 versus midweek”s rate of N1,373/$1, but at the parallel market, it remained unchanged at N1,400/$1.
The NAFEM interbank FX turnover jumped to $98.804 million on Thursday, up by more than 31 per cent from $75.357 million the previous day.
Similarly, the number of deals at the NFEM interbank increased to 106 from 82, confirming higher US Dollar flows at the official FX market.
Traders expect the Naira to hold steady, buoyed by dollar sales by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), whose presence in the market will help ease demand pressure.
In the cryptocurrency market, major cryptocurrencies were mostly down as the Senate delayed a vote on the Crypto Clarity Act until at least September.
The bill, which would set out which U.S. regulator oversees which digital assets, needs 60 votes to pass, and it is unclear whether it currently has 50. Several Republican senators have said publicly they oppose it, and Democrats want stricter rules preventing President Donald Trump from profiting from crypto while in office.
Ripple (XRP) shrank by 2.5 per cent to $1.02, Solana (SOL) depleted by 1.5 per cent to $72.86, Binance Coin (BNB) fell by 1.4 per cent to $587.41, Dogecoin (DOGE) tumbled by 0.9 per cent to $0.0692, Bitcoin (BTC) decreased by 0.6 per cent to $64,344.69, and Ethereum (ETH) tumbled by 0.3 per cent to $1,902.03.
However, Cardano (ADA) appreciated by 7.7 per cent to $0.2025, and TRON (TRX) rose by 0.3 per cent to $0.3267, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) traded flat at $1.00 apiece.
By Dipo Olowookere
Buying interest in consumer goods, energy and banking stocks further raised the Customs Street by 0.12 per cent on Thursday despite profit-taking in the insurance and industrial goods sectors.
According to data from the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited showed that the banking index grew by 0.62 per cent, the consumer goods space rose by 0.15 per cent, and the energy counter increased by 0.06 per cent, while the insurance sector crashed by 0.93 per cent, with the industrial goods segment flat.
At the close of business, the All-Share Index (ASI) went up by 297.10 points to 245,209.34 points from 244,912.24 points, and the market capitalisation gained N191 billion to finish at N158.278 trillion compared with the previous day’s N158.087 trillion.
Eterna led the gainers’ log yesterday after it chalked up 10.00 per cent to settle at N36.30, ACA Capital improved by 9.63 per cent to N11.95, Legend Internet expanded by 9.52 per cent to N4.60, FCMB jumped by 8.55 per cent to N12.70, and Honeywell Flour surged by 7.98 per cent to N17.60.
On the flip side, Fortis Global Insurance led the losers’ chart after it shed 10.00 per cent to trade at N2.52, Ecobank declined by 9.99 per cent to N72.10, Chellarams depleted by 9.85 per cent to N11.90, Thomas Wyatt dipped by 9.83 per cent to N3.21, and UPDC slipped by 8.45 per cent to N3.25.
During the trading day, 531.8 million shares worth N20.5 billion exchanged hands in 44,826 deals compared with the 824.1 million shares valued at N25.5 billion transacted in 48,114 deals on Wednesday.
This indicated that the volume of trades was down by 35.47 per cent, the value of transactions depreciated by 19.61 per cent, and the number of deals decreased by 6.83 per cent.
The busiest stock for the session was FCMB, which traded 131.7 million units for N1.6 billion, First Holdco transacted 43.5 million units worth N6.0 billion, AVA Capital exchanged 36.3 million units valued at N432.0 million, Chams traded 36.3 million units sold 36.3 million units valued at N149.8 million, and Access Holdings ended with a turnover of 24.4 million units worth N638.8 million.
By Adedapo Adesanya
Brent crude rose by 3.83 per cent or $3.04 to $82.29 per barrel on Thursday after an information that an Iranian parliament committee was reviewing a bill that would ban US and Israeli vessels from the Strait of Hormuz.
Also, the price of the US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures went up by 81 cents or 1.05 per cent to $77.29 per barrel during the session.
Under the apparent draft, Iran would ban American and Israeli ships from transiting the strait. Other nations that have harmed Iran would not be allowed to transit until compensation is paid, according to the draft. Iran would impose penalties on violators equivalent to 20 per cent of the value of cargo aboard a ship.
Market analysts noted that crude traders remain focused on the US-Iran agreements, and the longer the delays, the more prices will fade back to the upside.
Iran has warned Gulf states that any new US attack on its territory would trigger attacks on critical energy infrastructure across the region.
Before the Iran conflict began in late February, about one-fifth of global daily oil and liquefied natural gas supplies flowed through the Strait of Hormuz.
Meanwhile, Yemen’s Houthis said they carried out missile and drone attacks on “Saudi deployments” in Marib and Hadramout in Yemen on Thursday. This has led to elimination of Saudi-aligned fighters as well as destruction of military camps, weapons depots and vehicles.’
Also, Iran and Oman appear to be close to agreeing on joint management of the Strait of Hormuz with Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman, Esmaeil Baghaei, saying the deal with Oman was “in the final stages.”
Saudi Arabia has slightly lowered the official selling price for its flagship Arab Light crude oil to Asia in September.
Elsewhere, a major oil refinery in Russia’s Yaroslavl region was on fire after a big Ukrainian drone attack. The President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the country’s military had hit two Russian oil refineries – the Bashneft-Novoil refinery in the republic of Bashkortostan, and the Slavneft-Yanos refinery in the Yaroslavl region.
