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Q&A with Basil Omeje, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Savannah Services Limited, on the upcoming Lagos Forex Expo.

Q: What is the main agenda of the Lagos Forex Expo which your company is planning to host in August?

A: Our focus is to facilitate electronic currency trading and the investment opportunities the online foreign exchange trading has to offer. The average daily volume of forex trading is about $5.29 trillion, according to Reuters. This presents investors and traders with the opportunity to benefit from the fluctuation of currencies, commodities, stocks and indices online.

Q: Currently, the Nigerian foreign exchange market is in a turmoil. The value of the naira continues to fall in speculative trade. Is this an opportunity or an adversity for online forex traders?

A: There are two sides to this. It is an opportunity for the forex traders who funded their accounts at a lower rate to make huge profits even without trading. Let's say an investor funded his offshore forex account with $10,000 six months ago and couldn't or didn't trade and decides to withdraw his funds back, he must have made about 30% profit because of the current exchange rate of naira to U.S. dollar. It is also an opportunity for good return on investment, if the trader or investor is making profits on his trading account. To be honest, successful online forex traders would want the naira to be devalued the more just as The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has called for further currency depreciation in Nigeria and seven other oil-exporting African countries.

The only adverse effect of devaluing naira on traders is higher funding rate of accounts in USD.

Q: Looking at the Nigerian domestic foreign exchange market, especially the continued depreciation of the naira in the parallel market, what are your thoughts on what would help stabilize the local currency?

A: Sub-Saharan Africa's eight oil exporters have been hard hit by the price decline, and their average growth in 2015 is expected to be about 1¼ percentage points lower than in 2014, in response to this shock.

For Nigeria, fiscal adjustment must be a priority. Policymakers should support an adjustment by allowing exchange rates to depreciate, where flexible exchange rate mechanisms are in place.  

Q: For now, the US Federal Reserve has held off its much-anticipated interest rate hike, which is expected to bring about repricing of financial assets and spark reverse financial flow from emerging and frontier markets. Would higher interest rates in the US reduce the current level of interest in trading forex online?

A: Not at all, one good benefit of trading forex online is that one can profit from either rising or falling markets. If the U.S. decides to hike or shy away from raising the interest rate, traders that took the right positions will benefit from it. However, Federal Reserve policymakers are hoping that no unexpected domestic development or international crisis would intervene to prevent them from taking the first baby step to normalize interest rates at the Sept.16-17 meeting. Forex traders are eagerly waiting for the outcome of this event as the U.S. interest rate decision is a major economic event that moves the online forex market fluctuations.

Q: Who are the target participants of Lagos Forex Expo and why do you believe their participation is to their benefit?

A: Participants include individual and corporate investors and traders, ranging from professionals in banking and financial institutions to high networth individuals.

The benefits of attending the 2nd Lagos Forex Expo Conference and Exhibition which holds on the 13th and 14th of August at Sheraton Hotels, Ikeja, includes participation in a focused conference programme specifically researched and designed to meet investor's needs. We will discuss present challenges and opportunities for traders and investors, listen to keynote presentations by top gurus in the FX industry, get an opportunity to network with peers and competitors, discuss key insights into currency fundamentals across developed and emerging markets to help attendees make right investment decisions, give critical analysis of the evolving FX industry and new developments in regulations, and foster understanding of FX technologies and trading platforms.

Q: Since this is the second edition of your event, is it now a yearly event?

A: Yes. It is going to be an annual event, and we are also reaching out to other African countries. Plans are already underway for South Africa Forex Expo in Johannesburg by February 2016 and also in Kenya by May 2016.