Central bank targets exchange rate platforms

A website that publishes exchange rates for Nigeria's naira is ‘temporarily’ suspending the service after the Central Bank accused it of manipulating prices. A report on the Fin24 site notes that Abokifx, which is regarded as a reliable source for exchange rates in Nigeria's unauthorised parallel currency market, said it would no longer track rates ‘until we get better clarity of the situation’. And Naijabdcs.com, an alternative platform owned by the Association of Bureau De Change Operators in Nigeria, also suspended publication of market rates. Governor Godwin Emefiele on Friday said the bank recognised only the exchange rate at the investors and exporters window and ‘I do not intend to recognise that there are any other rates in the market’. The report notes that the naira has lost 13% of its value since 28 July after the central bank stopped sales of the US dollar to money traders.