According to the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit, the ban on cash withdrawals from accounts owned by the federal, state, local, or other government bodies won’t be lifted (NFIU).
The stance of the unit came in response to the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) appointing a six-member committee, led by Charles Soludo, a former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), and governor of Anambra State, to “address grey areas pertaining the country’s monetary management and financial system.”
Governor Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto, who is the chairman of the NGF, released a statement on Saturday in which the governors stated that the NFIU’s recent advise and guidelines on cash transactions fell beyond of their authority and mission under the law.
The governors also requested the CBN to take into account the unique characteristics of each state, particularly those that relate to financial inclusion and underserved populations, since strict adherence to the structured withdrawal limit would cause issues for the Nigerian people.
However, the NGF decided to “collaborate with the CBN and the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) in achieving genuine objectives within the bounds of our laws, noting that the recent NFIU.”
But while insisting that there will be no going back on the policy, the NFIU, on Saturday maintained that its ban on cash withdrawal was within the confines of the law concerning the guidelines on cash withdrawals from all government accounts.
The Director, NFIU, Modibbo Tukur who made this known in response to NGF, said though it was ready to partner with the committee set up by the governors, the unit will “continue to enlighten them” on the process.
“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,” Tukur said.
“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,” he added in a statement signed by the agency’s Chief Media Analyst, Ahmed Dikko.
