The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has instructed all banks in Nigeria to place a post-no-debit on the bank accounts of 38 companies over forex infractions.
The affected accounts listed by the CBN included betting companies, bureau de change companies and some logistics companies.
The the companies were alleged to have committed forex infractions, which involved moving foreign exchange abroad without the required authorisation and also of economic sabotage.
One of the gaming companies was alleged to have moved $420 million abroad under the guise of purchasing software even though the funds were later traced to the foreign accounts of some of the directors of the company. The forex was said to have been sourced from the black market, thereby putting pressure on the exchange rate. The gaming companies are awash with naira which sit in their bank accounts, so they devised a way of moving the funds abroad.
The memo dated September 4, 2020 and signed by Bello Hassan, director of banking supervision, read: “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”.
A post-no-debit means that all debit transactions, including ATMs and cheques, on the accounts have been blocked but money can be deposited into the accounts.
Some of the affected companies are Premier Lotto Limited, 3D Scanners Bureau De Change Limited, Blue Wall Nigeria Limited, JNFX International Limited and Northline Limited. Others are SV Gaming Limited, R&S Lotto Limited, TM Gaming Networks Limited, Escale Oil and Gas Limited, Barkoli Trading Company Limited, Godoni Enterprises Limited etc.
