The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) isn’t showing signs of weakness in its determination to sanitise the forex market following its August stoppage of dollars to the operators of Bureax De Change
And after directing commercial banks to take over the sales of forex to Nigerians who need them for PTA, BTA, medicals, and school fees abroad ( https://infomediang.com/requirements-forex-foreign-school-fees-nigeria ), the apex bank has vowed to place post-no-debit (PND) on the account of anybody racketeering forex.
What it means
A post-no-debit simply means that the owner of the account won’t be able to withdraw from their account through the counter, automated teller machines (ATMs). It means all debit transactions on the account will be blocked.
The stern warning comes days after the CBN described some BDCs as agents of money laundering and therefore channeled the weekly sales of the dollars to Nigerian commercial banks to ensure fair distribution of fx to genuine end-users.
Sending a warning to fraudulent individuals, Director of Banking Supervision at CBN, Mr Haruna Mustafa, said:
“The likely punishment is that your account will be PNDed. And if you understand that, you will not be able to do anything in the banking system”.
He spoke during a media briefing with members of the Nigeria Interbank Settlement System (NIBSS) who joined via zoom.
Forex sales to go digital
Mustafa also warned that CBN will not be lenient on banks caught engaging in or encouraging fraudulent transactions as the launch of digital sales of forex will be used to track transaction activities.
He attributed the current smooth running in the fx market with regards to PTA, BTA, School fees, medical fees, to the use of technology.
To apply for any of these, you have to bring your passports and flight tickets among other requirements.
The entire process is going digital, promising that an app is being created by Nigeria Interbank Settlement System (NIBSS) for Nigerians to submit applications online for foreign school fees, Personal Travel Allowance, foreign medicals needs, and Business Travel Allowance ( https://infomediang.com/forex-for-personal-travel-allowance-bta )
The meeting had the Group Managing Director of GTCO, Mr Segun Agbaje; the managing director of Stanbic IBTC, Mr Wole Adeniyi; GMD of Access Bank, Mr Herbert Wigwe; Mrs Ireti Samuel-Ogbu of Citibank, GMD of FCMB, Mrs Yemisi Edun; and Mrs Tomi Somefun of Unity Bank.