New Telegraph-Admin 
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) yesterday released an exposure draft of the Foreign Exchange (FX) Code Book for market participants, which it said, will become effective from October 14, 2024.
According to the apex bank, the FX Code, which draws on principles from the FX Global Code and best practices adopted in leading jurisdictions, “is intended to promote a robust, fair, liquid, open, and appropriately transparent market in which diverse set of Market participants, supported by resilient infrastructure, can confidently and effectively transact at competitive prices that reflect available market information in a manner that conforms to accepted global standards of behaviour and best practices.”
Affirming that, “Nigeria pursues a floating exchange rate regime, and the value of the Nigeria naira is determined by the market forces according to the demand and supply of foreign exchange,” the CBN also said that the FX Code has been developed, “to respond to emerging issues and address the dynamic nature of the financial markets and specifically address emerging challenges in the foreign exchange market.”
Specifically, the regulator said that the FX Code was organised around six leading principlesethics, governance, execution, information sharing , risk management and compliance, as well as confirmation and settlement processes.
Market participants, according to the exposure draft, “are banks licensed by the Central Bank of Nigeria under the CBN Act 2007 and Bank and Other Financial Institutions Act (BOFIA) 2020 and engage in the wholesale foreign exchange business in Nigeria as part of their licensed business.”
The exposure draft said that market participants should conduct a self-assessment and submit to the apex bank a report on their institutions’ level of compliance with the FX Code by December 31, 2024.
It added that “all market participants will thereafter be required to submit to the CBN a detailed compliance implementation plan that is approved by its Board by December 31, 2024. “The FX Code should be fully implemented, and each Market Participant be in full compliance by December 31, 2024.”
Meanwhile, as more Nigerians embrace Central Bank of Nigeria’s cashless policy, the Electronic Money Transfer Levy (EMTL) revenue disbursements by the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) to the three tiers of government-Federal Government, states and local government councils amounted to N129.40 billion between January and August this year, findings by New Telegraph show.
The amount is N5.65 billion or 4.57 per cent higher than the N123.75 billion EMTL generated by the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) in the corresponding period of 2023.
An analysis of communiqués of the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) meetings and relevant National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) data for the first eight months of the year, shows that the EMTL revenue disbursed to the three tiers of government amounted to N15.92 billion in January; N15.16 billion in February; N14.75 billion in March; N18.02 billion in April; N15.15 billion in May; N15.78 billion in June; N19.60 billion in July and N15.02 billion in August.
