CBN Lauds Collaboration With SEC, EFCC, Others to Stabilise FX Market

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr Yemi Cardoso, said on Tuesday that the apex bank’s collaboration with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) and others has been yielding positive outcomes.

Recall that Nigeria in February formed a joint task force made up of the entities and the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), and the Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU), to combat foreign exchange (FX) speculation and tackle the issues affecting the country’s economic stability.

He made the disclosure during the apex bank’s 294th meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) on Tuesday in Abuja when the MPC hiked the interest rate from 22.75 per cent to 24.75 per cent.

While responding to a question on the apex bank’s update on the crypto exchange platform, Binance, which has come under intense clampdown of the federal government since the last MPC meeting in February, he said it is the role of SEC to regulate cryptocurrency transactions in the country, and not the responsibility of the apex bank.

Since the meeting, a lot of developments have happened including the arrest of two Binance executives and then the crypto exchange announced the exit of its local services. One of the suspects —Mr Nadeem Anjarwalla has since escaped from custody and the government has since launched a manhunt for him.

On Monday, the government filed tax evasion charges against the platform and approached the court to compel Binance to publish the names of its Nigerian traders.

“We consider ourselves as having the wherewithal to collaborate with other agencies of government and that is a very important function for us.

“About a month ago, we actually did have collaboration with law enforcement agencies, EFCC, the SEC and other regulatory bodies as well, and what came out of that, is a work in progress, but very positive as far as I can say.

“The NSA, we’ve been sharing information together. However, in this particular case, the responsibility for regulating cryptocurrency is not our role, it isn’t ours; it is strictly that of the Security and Exchange Commission, not our responsibility,” he said.