The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Tuesday granted banks approval to allow the seven betting and gaming companies banned for forex infraction, access to their accounts for payment of winning, salaries and other overhead expenses.
This was stated in a circular to one of the tier two banks on ‘contravention of extant foreign exchange regulation’, co-signed by Jeremiah Abue, director, governor’s department and Bello Hassan, director, banking supervision department and seen by BusinessDay.
The CBN had on September 5, 2020 directed all deposit money banks to place 38 companies on post-no-debit with immediate effect.
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However at the meeting held by the governor of the CBN with one of the banks and stakeholders of seven betting and gaming companies on September 11 2020, the lender pleaded for clemency processing some transactions in violation of the extant foreign exchange regulations. Similarly, the betting and gaming companies intreated the Governor to allow them discharge operational expenses.
“Consequently, the Management of CBN has magnanimously granted your bank the approval to honour instruments presented by the companies for payment of winnings, salaries and other overhead expenses.”
However, the CBN warned that the post-no-debit restriction on the accounts of the companies still in place subject to the identified exceptions
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