… Retains benchmark lending rate
BY VICTORIA ONU, ABUJA
The Central Bank of Nigeria has said that it would shut down the operations of Aboki FX, a parallel foreign exchange website, which it described as an illegal and criminal platform.
The CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, disclosed this while fielding questions after the Monetary Policy Committee’s two-day meeting in Abuja, on Friday, stating that the bank also planned to prosecute the owner of the platform, Seun Oniwonde.
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.”
According to Emefiele, the CBN doesn’t recognise any forex market window besides the Investors and Exporters window.
The CBN said that it retained the 11.5 per cent interest rate for the country’s lending benchmark.
The committee members had, in July, voted to retain MPR at 11.5 per cent, a rate which had been maintained since September 2020.
Emefiele hinged the decision on the prediction that the country’s economy would continue to improve on the successful vaccination programme.
The MPC expressed delight at the country’s output growth, but was worried about the rate of inflation which stood at 17.01 per cent as of August 2021.
The CBN governor revealed that Anchor Borrower’s Programme beneficiaries received N798billion.
Industrial credit rose to N22.2trillion at the end of June 2021, said the apex bank governor.
On the management of exchange rate, the CBN warned banks to ensure transparency on foreign exchange dealings.
Promising to eliminate illegal Foreign Exchange dealers in the forex market, Emefiele said that investment in naira denominated currency had become less attractive.
