Central Bank of Nigeria Explains MTN, Bank Repatriation Fines with Timelines

We sincerely apologize to the Central Bank of Nigeria for our comments when the bank imposed fines on MTN and some banks over some foreign transfer transactions.

Yes, MTN Nigeria has another issue: now, it is coming from the Central Bank of Nigeria. The bank asked it yesterday to refund $8.13B (with B) which the apex bank said the mobile giant (allegedly) illegally repatriated. This is the CBN Letter to MTN (MTN-Letter-of-outcome-of-investigation).

Contrary to the statements from some of the entities, CBN actually gave them notices to defend themselves before going public.

He said a one-week deadline for MTN and the banks to reconcile their records and report back to the committee was not met. A fresh deadline also stretched to almost two months without the documents.

“At this point, we (CBN) could not wait endlessly for them. That is why we released the report to the public and imposed various sanctions totaling N5.87bn against the banks,” Mr Emefiele told PREMIUM TIMES.

“What CBN sought was a reversal of the transactions by MTN and return of the funds, because they were not finally authorised by the CBN, and follow due procedures in funds repatriation,” Mr Emefiele explained.

It is fake news to claim you woke up and read the fines on pages of newspapers when you had been given up to 2 months to come clean. I am truly disappointed that companies could manipulate words so devilishly.

From America to UK, everyone has been lambasting the CBN. But looking at the timelines, the banks and MTN had opportunities to have kept this saga private. But when they chose not, CBN went public. There was no malice on that as Nigeria is bigger than any company that operates in Nigeria. Personally, I apologize for accusing CBN of not showing tact to public companies.

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