AbokiFX has finally taken the decision to temporarily suspend rate updates on all their platforms, until it get better clarity of the situation with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the company said on Friday.
Grassroots.ng gathered that apex bank had taken steps that appeared aimed at cracking down on the popular forex publishing platform.
AbokiFX, which posts daily updates of the exchange rate on its website, was targeted in a letter CBN sent to commercial banks requesting transaction records of the website over an alleged breach of the National Intelligence Committee Act of 2004.
A spokesman for the CBN did not return requests seeking clarification about the move against AbokiFX throughout Thursday.
Nigerian media outlets, including TechEconomy.ng, Peoples Gazette, have relied heavily on AbokiFX in recent weeks to publish frequent and steep crashing of the naira against American dollars at the so-called black markets.
CBN Governor Godwin Emefiele has faced criticism perceived incompetence has led to naira’s depreciation.
However, in a statement obtained by Grassroots.ng, the AbokiFX said it does not trade FX or have the power to manipulate exchange 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 $1.
“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 from IVY league universities, to global businesses and research centres, we are a key source 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.”