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.

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.

Hope Moses-Ashike

Hope Moses-Ashike is an Associate Editor, Banking and Finance, with more than a decade of experience reporting on Nigeria’s financial system and broader economy. She closely tracks market movements, monetary policy decisions, company disclosures, regulatory actions, economic indicators, and global developments, and interprets what they mean for businesses, investors, policymakers, and households. Her reporting helps readers understand complex issues such as inflation trends, foreign exchange market dynamics, interest rate decisions, bank performance, and investment risks. She also covers major international events and periodically travels to Washington, D.C., to report on the World Bank/IMF Spring and Annual Meetings. Her dedication to financial journalism has earned her multiple recognitions and invitations to high-level professional development programmes. She is an alumna of the International Visitors Leadership Programme (IVLP) in the United States and holds an Advanced Financial Journalism Certificate from the Press Association Training in London, UK. Her other notable achievements include completing the Lagos Business School CMC Programme, the Bloomberg Media Africa Initiative Programme, and a Master Class in Journalism at Rhodes University in South Africa.