Abokifx back as Emefiele’s hold goes

Abokifx, an online platform that collates exchange rates, has come back with its live exchange rate publication, as Godwin Emefiele, the suspended governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)’s hold eases.

The online forex trading platform suspended its operations after the CBN placed its owners on investigations.

On abokifx, one dollar was quoted at N790 and N795 for buying and selling respectively, as of Monday July 10, 2023. The platform displayed Pounds rate at N1,005 and N1,015 for buying and selling respectively on the same day. Euro was trading at the buying rate of N845 and selling rate of N850 also as of Monday.

BusinessDay gathered that abokifx resumed operation following the suspension of Emefiele by President Bola Tinubu and the collapse of the various foreign exchange window into the Investors and Exporters (I&E) forex window, last month.

In September 2021, Olusegun Adedotun Oniwinde, owner of abokifx, faced the CBN’s harmer due to illegal foreign exchange trading.

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Emefiele said after the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting in September 2021 that Oniwinde used his website for forex manipulations and speculations by purchasing forex to make a profit, saying he was an illegal forex trader.

Oniwinde is a chartered accountant from South Ockendon Essex. He was born in September 1975. He registered the company in the UK in 2015 as a sole owner but also there are other significant owners, which include Boaz Associates Limited, Esther’s Limited, ES Merchant Limited and Abokifx, a company he founded six years ago.
As at January 2020, he had ownership of shares from 75 – 100 percent and had the right to remove and appoint directors.

He is British and resident in England with his family. Companies associated with Olusegun had at least £2,002 shareholder value and £28,087 cash in recent accounts.
“Some Nigerians do not give CBN any benefit of doubt at all. They simply believe all we do here is hunt people down. They forget that there are many unscrupulous actors in the economy,” the CBN said.