Nigerian governors are not happy that a unit in the federal government plans to abolish cash withdrawal. That unit has responded that both can discuss the matter. It is really intriguing that democratically elected governors do not want transparency as many continue to pursue the path of cash payments and withdrawals from the coffers of government’s purses.
We do hope they find a way to keep this policy: there is no reason for obscurity on this matter. Any contractor who does not have a bank account should not be serving the government. And workers who think they need to be paid in cash should resign from working for the public. In other words, there is no reason for concerns since states do not handle national security which may necessitate use of cash for operations.
Read full statement below
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NFIU Reacts to Statement by Governors Forum:
When approached by newsmen to respond to a Statement issued by the Chairman of the Nigerian Governors Forum regarding the guidelines on cash withdrawals from all government accounts, the Director of, the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU), Modibbo Hamman Tukur said “first of all we are ready to partner with the 6 man committee they set up. We will enlighten them.
“Secondly we acted within our functions and the law. We issued the Guidelines to control the barrage of investigations that we saw coming. Our Guidelines were meant to help the Governors not to fight them or any public servant.”
We reached a stage that if we allow the present scenario to continue, all public institutions will drift into STRUCTURED CASH WITHDRAWALS of certain amounts of money which by law, standards and best practices MUST be investigated continuously which is neither desirable nor reasonable.
We feel communities must move on by accommodating changes and adjusting to new developments.
“Last time we issued the Local government Guidelines we were taken to court but we won the case.
“But more importantly we need to understand that in recent past United States FIU and United Kingdom FIU penalized Nigerian Banks with fines of millions of U.S Dollars due to non compliance. Internally, non compliance with sections cited in the recent Guidelines comes with heavy penalties on financial institutions. We did, on gentlemanly pretext, avoid until this moment putting a fine to financial institutions expecting, gradual learning and adjustments.
“But to eternally guarantee this kind gesture is to automatically keep abusing our laws.
We want every stake holder to appreciate that we cooperated for too far and long. We held deep breath while defending these deficiencies Internationally, just to continue to remain in the International pay ponits and competing with others.
“Finally, we also clearly stated in the precceding advisory, that the entire financial system suffered excess liquidity and liquidity ratio infringements which put hedging pressure of demand for foreign currency and gradually destroying the value of the Naira and above all creating wide room for money laundering and terrorism affecting significantly the rural populace on top of general inflation in the open market place.
“We are in support of working together to stop these challenges and in most progressive manner.”
Ahmed Dikko
Chief Media Analyst
CBN Cash Swap
Meanwhile, as “part of efforts to facilitate the circulation of its new naira notes, the Central Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has launched a cash swap programme across local government areas in Nigeria”, PT reports. The apex bank released a circular addressed to all DMBs, mobile money operators (MMOs), super agents and agents, on Friday:
“The agent shall exchange a maximum of N10,000 per person. Amounts above N10,000 may be treated as cash-in deposit into wallets or bank accounts in line with the cashless policy. BVN, NIN, or Voter’s card details of the customers should be captured as much as possible.
“To promote financial inclusion, this service is also available to anybody without a bank account .Agents may, on request, instantly open a wallet or account, leveraging the CBN Tiered KYC Framework. This will ensure that this category of the populace are able to exchange or deposit their cash seamlessly without taking unnecessary risk or incurring undue cost,” the bank said.
“Designated agents are eligible to collect the redesigned notes from DMBs in line with the revised cash withdrawal limit policy,” the bank said.
“Agents are also permitted to charge cash-out fees for the cash swap transactions but prohibited from charging any further commissions to customers for this service.”
The bank said these agents will render weekly returns to their designated banks regarding the cash swap transactions while the banks shall in turn render the same to the CBN on a weekly basis.
“Principals (super agents, MMOs, DMBs) shall be held accountable for their agents adherence to the above guidelines,” the circular reads.
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