$2.3bn NNPC funds: CBN bars 9 banks from forex market

The Central Bank of Nigeria on Tuesday wielded the big stick as it barred nine Deposit Money Banks from the nation’s foreign exchange market for failing to remit the sum of $2.334bn belonging to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation to the Treasury Single Account.

President Muhammad Buhari had last September ordered all the DMBs in the country to remit all Federal Government funds to the TSA.

The banks are: First Bank of Nigeria Limited ($469m); Diamond Bank Plc ($287m); Sterling Bank Plc ($269m); Skye Bank Plc ($221m); Fidelity Bank ($209m); United Bank for Africa ($530m); Keystone Bank ($139); First City Monument Bank (FCMB) $125m; and Heritage Bank ($85m).

Officials of the CBN officials told our correspondent that the sanction would remain until the DMBs could remit the funds to the CBN.

The officials further said the further disciplinary actions awaited the errant banks after remitting the funds in full to the Federal Government’s coffers.

As of time of filing this report, it was learnt that some bank executives were meeting with the CBN Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, over the development.

However, the Head, Corporate Communications, UBA, Mr. Charles Aigbe, said the bank was not among the banks sanctioned by the CBN.

In a statement issued on Tuesday, Aigbe said, “Our attention has been drawn to report of the ban of UBA from the foreign exchange market by the CBN over the non-remittance of the NNPC/NLNG dollar deposits.

“We wish to state very categorically that UBA has completely remitted all the NNPC/NLNG dollar deposits. We thank all our numerous customers, business partners and other. stakeholders who have reached out to us on account of this report.” Read more…