By Ngozi Onyeakusi — The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has distanced itself from a report by one of the national dailies that a cartel in the apex banks are involved in dollar racketeering.

CBN spokesman, Mr. Isaac Okoroafor, in a statement, on Monday discribed the report as false and challenged the authors of the story to provide evidence to back up their claims.

Responding to the Newspapers claim in its Monday report titled: “Exposed The Sleazy Face of N306/$, inside Nigeria’s racket where faceless agents pocket over N32bn annually”, Okoroafor said” The CBN wishes to state unequivocally that this report is unfounded and untrue and challenges BusinessDay to provide the names and also verifiable evidence of collusion between these faceless agents and officials of the CBN, who are working to perpetuate these so called Fx racket schemes. We would also urge the management of BusinessDay to contact the CBN prior to making such spurious allegations, as we were denied the benefit of responding to this article”.

Okoroafor reminded the business newspaper that “as most financial observers have noted, that the Fx rates across various markets governed and regulated by the CBN, have been converging, leaving no room for arbitrage opportunities in Nigeria’s Fx market”.

He said “For avoidance of doubt, the CBN will continue to act in the best interest of Nigeria and shall ensure it remains focused on its core mandate of sustaining the stability in the FX market”.