The Central Bank of Nigeria has denied foreign exchange fraud allegations.  Mr. Isaac Okorafor, Acting Director, Corporate Communications of the bank  has issued a statement to that effect: “Following  media  reports alleging  irregularities  in  the  rates  at  which foreign  exchange  was  obtained  by  some individuals  and  companies from  different Deposit  Money  Banks under  the new  [60:40] Foreign  Exchange  Policy  by  the Central  Bank  of  Nigeria,  which prioritises  FOREX  sales  to  manufacturers, agriculture,  plant  and machinery,  critical  raw materials,  among  others,  we  wish  to  make the following  clarifications:

“The  Central Bank  of  Nigeria  neither  allocates  foreign exchange nor  does  it  deal  directly  with  bank customers.”

“The CBN does not fix FOREX rates for transactions by individuals or companies. In  line  with  our  principle  of transparency,  we  directed  DMBs  to forward to  us  evidence  of  FOREX  sale  to  end users  and  to advertise  same  in  national dailies. Since  the  introduction  of  the  new FOREX  Policy  in  2016,  we  have published, monthly,  the  evidence  of  sale  from  DMBs, as  received from  the  banks  and  without  any alteration  by  us  in  the  spirit  of transparency.”

“We  have  recently  observed,  however,  that some DMBs forwarded  inaccurate  data, which  were  erroneously published  and  gave a  wrong  impression  of  disparate rates; The DMBs involved in providing inaccurate data  have  since  been issued  queries accordingly.  Some  have  returned  a response, indicating  that  some  of  the  figures were related  to formatting errors, which  do not  affect  the  true  rates  of  the  affected transactions.”

“As  the  constitutionally  authorised  industry regulator,  mandated  to manage  the  FOREX market,  maintain  external  reserves  and  to safeguard  the  international  value  of  the legal  tender  currency,  we  wish to  state unequivocally  that  the  CBN  has  a  duty  to perform  and  would not  indulge  in  acts capable  of  discrediting  the FOREX  market.

“We  therefore  wish  to  reiterate  that  the  sale of  FOREX  under  the  new policy  is  most transparent  and  it  is  not  intended  to  benefit any individual  or  corporate  body  in  anyway.”