There are concerns as Financial Markets Dealers Quotations (FMDQ), the official source of monitoring the exchange rate in Nigeria, continues to delay the publication of the daily exchange rates on its website.
Gatekeepers News and other media outlets rely on FMDQ for a timely and accurate figure to disseminate to business owners and others who are interested in FX.
This medium, however, observes that the official exchange rate which was usually published by the FMDQ in the morning on a daily basis, is now being delayed for 2 days, depriving millions of users of the important information without any official reason.
FMDQ started holding on to the opening and closing rate on Monday, 10th January, when it hid the figure it had earlier published for Friday, 7th, and replaced it with the opening rate of Thursday, 6th and closing rate of Wednesday 5th, 2022, confusing many who had earlier seen and used Friday’s figure. At first, Gatekeepers News had thought it was a glitch on the website but Friday’s figure was brought back on Tuesday, 11th 2022, and the irregularity has since continued.
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.”
