SAN FRANCISCO, September 06, (THEWILL) – 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.
THEWILL gathered that the affected accounts belong to betting companies, bureau de change companies and some logistics companies. They include 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.
The companies were being accused of forex infractions, moving forex abroad without the required authorisation and “economic sabotage.”
One of the companies, Premier Lotto, is owned by Adebutu Kessington, a Nigerian businessman popularly known as “Baba Ijebu.”
The report stated that the companies were being accused of forex infractions, moving forex abroad without the required authorisation and “economic sabotage.”
Sources said that one of the gaming companies moved $420m abroad under the guise of purchasing software but the funds were later traced to the foreign accounts of some of the directors of the company.
“The forex was 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,” a source added..
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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.’’
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