CBN examiners hunt for N250bn TSA funds

Examiners from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) are screening the books of the nation’s deposit money banks (DMBs) in a bid to find about N250 billion yet to be remitted to the CBN under the new Treasury Single Account (TSA) policy of the Federal Government, BusinessDay learnt last night.

The examiners were sent to the banks after two of the nation’s leading lenders were believed to be concealing over N100 billion cash belonging to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) meant to have been remitted to the account domiciled with CBN.

About N1.2trillion had been moved from the banks while N250billion was yet to be accounted for.

But the nation’s regulatory bank is determined to ensure that the new policy which is expected to instill transparency in the nation’s finances is complied with.

“Our examiners have been sent out to all the banks. We are determined to trace approximately N200 billion we believe is still being held by the banks,” Godwin Emefiele told Business Day last night.

While promising that the exercise would be conducted with strict professionalism to avoid any  run on the banks, Emefiele further said, “We have already sent queries to the two banks and their fate and that of their chief executives would be determined by the board of governors of the CBN.

“We will not condone any bad behaviour. Once we get the report and we are able to confirm that any of the banks has gone out of the line, appropriate sanctions would be imposed.”

BusinessDay had exclusively reported last two weeks about the controversy trailing the implementation of the policy requiring Federal Government Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to collapse all bank accounts in DMBs into the Single Account with the CBN.

At the last Bankers Committee meeting in Lagos, Emefiele was said to have expressed displeasure over the haphazard compliance by banks which were reluctant to remit all the specified funds in their vaults.

The bank CEOs were said to have insisted on the need to remain committed to bank/customer relationship, arguing that they could not transfer a customer’s fund to another account without written instruction of the customer, or at least an order of the court.

Consequently, the CEOs resolved that the CBN, which knows how much each government agency still has in the DMBs, can as a matter of fact, use its powers as the regulator and debit the banks with the respective amounts, adding that by so doing, the apex bank would have taken responsibility and all the DMBs would do when the agencies come to them, is to let the government agencies know that the CBN moved the funds out of their accounts.

The governor was said to have told the CEOs that he would embark on further consultations, insisting that no bank that contravenes the policy would be spared.

John OMACHONU