The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr Godwin Emefiele, has concluded plans to send the Economic and Finance Crimes Commission (EFCC) and other security agencies after Nigerians fraudulently buying foreign exchange in the form of Personal Travel Allowance (PTA)/Business Travel Allowance (BTA) from banks.
The apex bank claimed that defaulters of its forex policy were customers that obtain PTA/BTA from banks, using fake visas, and others who cancel their flights and fail to return the purchased PTA/BTA within two weeks as stipulated in the customer declaration form signed.
At a two-day meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), in Abuja,Emiefele said there was evidence that people had deceitfully bought forex from banks using fake visas, and under the pretext of travelling, only to cancel their tickets afterwards.
He disclosed that one of the banks sold forex to 52 people who said they wanted to travel.
He added: “After two weeks, they went to check, and 40 out of the 52 had cancelled their tickets. How could you have a situation where about 70 per cent or 80 per cent of people who went to a bank to buy BTA on the excuse that they wanted to travel cancel the trip?Bank sold to them but they turned back and then went and sold it to the black market because they wanted to enjoy the arbitrage.”
He said such fraudulent means of acquiring foreign exchange would no longer go unpunished, adding that the CBN was committed to meeting all legitimate Fx demands in the country.
He stated : “However if you go to a bank with a fake ticket, fake visa, fake passport, we have told them not to sell to you. If they sell to you mistakenly because you hoodwinked them to sell to you and after two weeks, they checked and found that you cancelled your ticket or your visa is fake, they will call you because you are their customer; they have your BVN, they have your number – they will call you to return the dollars.
“If you do not return it, they will place your name on their website, your BVN on their website and we will pick those details and we will send them to EFCC and other crime agencies and they will pursue you, you must return the dollars because you cannot acquire it illegally. That is our position.”
He disclosed that the bank would track down and bring the founder of AbokiFx, Mr Oniwinde Adedotun to book for alleged speculative activities on the foreign exchange “which amounted to economic sabotage.”
According to him, Adedotun had been conducting nefarious and criminal activity on the Nigerian economy by indulging in forex speculation in contravention of the CBN Act which vested the apex bank with the sole responsibility for determining the rate of the Naira.
The CBN governor said: “We found him as a Nigerian who lives in England and conducts this nefarious and criminal activity on our economy. It is economic sabotage and we will pursue him wherever he is. We will report him to international security agencies.
“We’ll track him, Mr Oniwinde, we will find you, because we cannot allow you to continue to conduct an illegal activity that kills our economy.”
He described Oniwinde as an illegal Fx dealer who started the AbokiFx operation in 2015, adding that he had since milked the economy by taking the position and manipulating the exchange rate to the detriment of the economy.
Emefiele said the CBN had investigated the activities of AbokiFx for the last two and a half years, adding that since the inception of the business in 2015, the company had continued to file the same account balance sheet of £1,000 to the UK Government for four consecutive years.
He alleged that in Nigeria, the company had over 25 bank accounts with about eight banks in both naira and dollar with significant turnover which indicated that he had been milking the system through speculative information activities on the Naira and collecting his proceeds in cash through a particular ATM in London.”
Nevertheless, the CBN governor said the bank would continue to do its job of safeguarding the financial system for the betterment of everyone.
“A few questions: Have Nigerians ever asked how exactly AbokiFx collects the data that he publishes on his website? How many BDCs can claim that they have either seen a staff of AbokiFx coming to ask for daily rates or how many BDCs send daily returns on the exchange rate to AbokiFx? How then do they determine what the rate is and they post them illegally on their website.
“In which other countries will an unlicensed single person be the one that sets the exchange rate in that country? How come he sets the exchange rate of our own country, and why is he not setting the exchange rate of the Pound and Dollar or Pound and South African Rands? Why target Nigeria, and yet you are a Nigerian?
“You chose to live in London, enjoy all the spoils in London at the expense of the blood of Nigerians. You will pay for it.
“The CBN Act Section 2, does make it clear that only the Central Bank can determine the value of the Naira, and yet a single unscrupulous individual who lives in London continues to manipulate the exchange for Nigerians, continues to make huge profits, continues to collect these profits in cash ATMs in London while ordinary Nigerians suffer the consequences of these actions. We will not allow this to continue again.”
