This medium, on the other hand, notes that the official exchange rate, which was formerly provided by the FMDQ every morning, has been delayed for two days, depriving millions of users of critical information for no apparent reason.
On Monday, January 10th, FMDQ began holding on to the opening and closing rates when it hid the figure it had previously published for Friday, January 7th, and replaced it with the opening rate of Thursday, January 6th, and closing rate of Wednesday, January 5th, 2022, confusing many who had previously seen and used Friday’s figure.
The delay was also extended to other daily indices like the money market rate, S&P Sovereign bond index, NIBOR, NAFEX as well as the NITTY rates.
Many businesses in the country depend on the Investors & Exporters Window (I&E) for making business decisions such as imports and exports, conversion of FX balances, payment for goods and services, etc.
Similarly, foreign investors rely on the rate for investments. Media, researchers and market watchers also use FMDQ’s figure in analyzing the exchange rate and its impact on the economy.
The delay which is obviously deliberate, as there is no official statement for users for almost two weeks, has sparked speculations that the FMDQ now sells the daily official rate to those who need it urgently need to know the closing exchange rate and market turnover. While those who want it for free will have to wait for two days until it is published.
Last year, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) clamped down on AbokiFX, a site where Bureau De Change operators monitor currency exchange rates, accusing the website and the owner of manipulating the currency to sabotage the economy.
“We have been studying the activities of abokiFX in the last two years. There was a time we asked our colleagues to call the abokiFX to ask how he conducts the rates,” the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele said, noting that “the only exchange rate remains the I&E window, which is the market we expect everybody who wishes to procure or sell forex to get it.”