CBN freezes accounts of 38 firms over forex infractions

The Central Bank of Nigeria has directed banks to freeze the accounts of 38 companies operating in the country.

The development was confirmed in a circular signed by the CBN’s Director of Banking Supervision, Bello Hassan.

The apex bank in the circular directed commercial banks to place the accounts of the 38 companies on “Post No Debit”order.

This means that all debit transactions, including ATMs, credit cards and cheques, on the accounts are prevented from going out of the bank account.

This happens for some reasons such as fraud suspicions in most cases or on the side of the financial institution an error in terms of payment.

When this happens investigations may need to be conducted and neccessary actions would be considered. If the financial institution is satisfied then the block will be removed.

The CBN circular reads, “You are hereby required to place the under listed accounts on Post-No-Debit with immediate effect and revert with the account names, numbers, currencies and balances of all accounts placed on PND.

“Note that only the listed entities should be placed on PND, all related accounts are excluded. Your response should be forwarded to the underlisted email addresses Osoladipo@cbn.gov.ng or moabeng@cbn.gov.ng.’’

According to a report, the affected accounts belong to betting companies, bureau de change companies and some logistics companies.

The report stated that the companies were being accused of forex infractions, moving forex abroad without the required authorisation and “economic sabotage.”