Naira crashes to record low despite Aboki FX ban

The value of the naira has further deteriorated by 1.68 per cent against the dollar at the official market on Thursday.

At the Investor & Exporter foreign exchange window, the local currency opened at 413.15/$1 on Thursday but closed at 422.07/$1.

The naira had depreciated by 0.19 per cent to 415.10/$1 on Wednesday after closing at 414.30/$1 on Tuesday.

At the parallel market, the dollar was bought at N565 and sold for N570, according to some operators in the black market.

The Central Bank of Nigeria, however, maintained N410.91/$1 as its official rate on its website.

In July, the CBN stopped forex sales to the Bureau de Change operators and assured that it would supply forex to legitimate users through the banks.

TopNaija recalls that the Federal Government shut down the operations of Aboki FX, a website providing currency exchange 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.

He said, “I have given instructions to our experts to go after his website and let it be clear that we will go after him because we can’t allow this to continue.”