General News
Naira Slumps by 209 Per Cent in 6 Years
Despite the over $130bn deployed by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to defend the naira and a myriad of policies churned out to shore up its value over the past six years, the Nigerian currency has depreciated by over 209.2 per cent, sliding from N196.99 to a dollar in December 2015 to N412.06/$ in September 2021.
According to the Tribune, the depreciation is even higher at the parallel market with one dollar which sold for about N230 in December 2015 now going for almost N550 in September 2021.
Tribune findings revealed that between 2016 and the first quarter of the current year, the apex bank sold as much as $130.6billion to foreign exchange market operators in its various interventions just as it had come up with tens of policies to salvage the sagging national currency.
According to documents and reports accessed on the CBN website, between January and December 2016, the CBN defended the naira with about $11.7 billion. The figure rose to $15.8billion in 2017, was $36.6billion in 2018, hit $34.3bn in 2019 and came down to $27.84billion in 2020.
In the first quarter of 2021, the CBN spent $4.37bn to defend the naira.
The documents showed that in its effort to stave off pressure on the naira, the CBN sustained its direct intervention in the inter-bank foreign exchange market to ensure exchange rate stability.
So, at various times it sold dollars at the foreign exchange market, made up of the inter-bank spot, invisibles, the SMEs, at the I&E window and as forwards sales.
Although deploying dollars in defence of naira has mitigated the pressure on the naira, the exercise has also depleted the nation’s foreign reserves which currently stood at $33.32billion as of June 30, 2021, about a quarter of what had been deployed to saving the naira.
Explaining the rationale behind deploying the nation’s external reserves to defend the naira, Godwin Emefiele, CBN governor, said the CBN Act mandates the apex bank to defend the national currency, adding that “A flexible exchange rate would not favour the poor. I am committed to protecting the Naira. We cannot allow the Naira to float freely.”
The tenure of Emefiele as CBN governor has witnessed the rollout of a number of policies meant to shore up the value of the naira.
This started in June 2015 with the stoppage of the sale of dollars to those engaged in the importation of 41 items that could be produced in Nigeria.
The apex bank explained that it took that decision to “conserve foreign reserves as well as facilitate the resurrection of domestic industries and improve employment generation.”
In January 2016, the CBN governor, during a press conference, announced that the apex bank would no longer sell dollars to BDCs.
According to him, “The Bank would henceforth discontinue its sale of foreign exchange to BDCs. Operators in this segment of the market would now need to source their foreign exchange from autonomous source. They must however note that the CBN would deploy more resources to monitoring these sources to ensure that no operator is in violation of our anti-money laundering laws.”
Emefiele added that the measures were not punitive but meant to guarantee the preservation of the nation’s resources and stabilize the financial system.
The CBN however later reversed itself and resumed the sale of dollars to BDC operators.
In 2017, the CBN introduced a new window for investors, exporters and end-users with a view to increasing liquidity and forcing down the exchange rate. But that didn’t achieve much as the slide of naira continued. In 2018, the CBN increased the number of items banned from accessing foreign exchange to 42 as it imposed foreign exchange ban on fertiliser importation.
This was contained in a circular entitled: “Re: Inclusion of some imported goods and services on the list of items as ‘Not Valid for Foreign Exchange in the Nigerian Foreign Exchange Market.”
The circular signed by Ahmed Umar, director, Trade and Exchange Department, stated: “In the continued effort to sustain the achievement recorded from the classification of 41 items as ‘Not valid for foreign exchange’ in the Nigerian foreign exchange market, authorised dealers and the general public are hereby notified of the inclusion of fertiliser on the lists effective Friday, December 7, 2018.”
In March 2020, the CBN devalued the naira by changing the official exchange rate from N307/$1 to N360/$1.
In May 2020, the CBN governor directed businesses and individuals to stop patronizing the parallel market for foreign currency exchange.
Later in July of the year, the apex bank extended forex restriction to maize importation, saying the decision was borne out of the need “to increase local production, stimulate a rapid economic recovery, safeguard rural livelihoods and increase jobs which were lost as a result of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.”
Operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), has busted a Ponzi Scheme Academy and arrested 133 suspects in Abuja.
They were arrested at the Compensation Layout in Gwagwalada area of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Abuja, following actionable intelligence on the existence of the Academy.
The Academy, named Q University (a.k.a Q-Net) is in the business of recruiting gullible young Nigerians who are trained to recruit more gullible citizens into the scheme with the promise of getting unrealistic profit returns.
The suspects are enrolled into a training codenamed: “Special Training for New Generation Billionaire” and brainwashed to believe that they would graduate into the league of billionaires.
They got into the training by obtaining a form the promoters called “Independent Representative Application Form” with promotional slogans such as: “I’m a Champion” “I’m Unstoppable”, “I’m Infinity”, among others.
The EFCC carried out the operation in collaboration with officers and men of 176 Guards Battalion, Nigerian Army.
Items recovered from the suspects include phones, computers and other electronic gadgets.
They will be charged to court as soon as investigations are concluded.
Big companies are leaving Nigeria are leaving Nigeria because of what Heineken Lokpobiri, minister of state for petroleum resources described as “middlemanism”.
So called “middlemanism” is slack form of middleman, which is an intermediary who facilitates transactions between a buyer and a seller, often taking on roles like wholesaling, distribution, or brokering, and earning a commission or fee for their services.
The minister made this known during the opening of the Petroleum Technology Association of Nigeria’s Sub-Saharan Africa International Petroleum Conference.
Heineken Lokpobiri disclosed that a lot of intermediaries who entered the oil industry caused its damage.
According to the minister, due to middlemen and intermediaries, some big and multinational oil service giant such as Schlumberger, Halliburton, McDermott, and others left Nigeria.
“We have made mistakes. And I’m saying this specifically so that all African countries here today will not make the mistake that Nigeria made. When I became minister, one of the issues I was confronted with had to do with the multinational service companies all exiting Nigeria. They’ve all gone, except, maybe this Italian company, Saipem. That was the only one that was around. So we had a situation where there was a monopoly.
“The other big boys—the Schlumberger, Halliburton, the McDermotts—all of them have gone. All of you here in PETAN have your good days in these companies. That was where you started from. That was where you actually developed your capacity,” Lokpobiri said.
Authorities in seven African countries have arrested 306 suspects and seized 1842 devices in a sweeping international operation targeting cyber-enabled fraud and scams.
Dubbed Operation Red Card, the effort ran from November 2024 to February 2025, focusing on dismantling cybercrime networks that defrauded over 5000 victims through mobile banking fraud, investment scams and malicious messaging app schemes., according to infosecurity-magazine.com
In Nigeria, police arrested 130 suspects, including 113 foreign nationals, for running fraudulent investment schemes and online casinos.
Authorities found that criminals funneled illicit proceeds into digital assets to obscure their financial trails.
Investigations also uncovered signs of human trafficking, with some individuals coerced into participating in the scams.
Law enforcement seized: 26 vehicles; 16 houses; 39 plots of land; and 685 electronic devices
In Rwanda, 45 individuals were arrested for orchestrating a social engineering scam that defrauded victims of more than $305,000 in 2024.
Scammers posed as telecommunications employees and falsely claimed victims had won lotteries to extract sensitive information.
Others impersonated injured family members to request emergency financial assistance.
Authorities recovered $103,043 and seized 292 devices.
South African authorities arrested 40 individuals and confiscated over 1000 SIM cards, along with 53 desktop computers and towers linked to a sophisticated SIM box fraud scheme.
This setup allowed cybercriminals to disguise international calls as local ones, facilitating large-scale SMS phishing attacks.
In Zambia, law enforcement apprehended 14 members of a cyber syndicate specializing in malware attacks.
The criminals sent phishing messages containing malicious links, infecting victims’ devices and taking control of messaging and banking apps. This enabled them to access financial accounts and further spread fraudulent links.
The operation was carried out through INTERPOL’s African Joint Operation against Cybercrime (AFJOC) initiative, which supports law enforcement efforts in combating cyber-threats.
The United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office funded Operation Red Card under the AFJOC initiative, allocating £2.6m to enhance Africa’s law enforcement capabilities in detecting and preventing cybercrime.
The seven participating countries – Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, To and Zambia – continue to collaborate on intelligence-led cybercrime investigations.
“The success of Operation Red Card demonstrates the power of international cooperation in combating cybercrime, which knows no borders and can have devastating effects on individuals and communities,” commented Neal Jetton, Interpol’s director of the cybercrime directorate.
“The recovery of significant assets and devices, as well as the arrest of key suspects, sends a strong message to cyber-criminals that their activities will not go unpunished.”
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