The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has instructed banks to remove the post-no-debit restriction they had placed on 440 bank accounts of individuals and companies.
The restriction was initiated in 2021, following the CBN’s claim of investigating illegal foreign exchange transactions on the accounts, and the federal high court in Abuja granted the CBN’s request to freeze the accounts.
The CBN then directed banks to freeze the accounts of 18 enterprises, including bureaux de change, construction firms, investment firms, laundering services, real estate firms and some fintech companies for 180 days (6 months).
A post-no-debit restriction on an account restricts the account holders from carrying out debit transactions, including ATMs and cheques, but the accounts can receive inflows.
This means that the account can only receive funds, but the account holder cannot withdraw or transfer money from the account; over the counter, via ATMs or Cheques.
The affected companies included Bakori Mega Services,
Ashambrakh General Enterprise,
Namuduka Ventures Limited,
Crosslinks Capital and Investment Limited,
IGP Global Synergy Limited,
Davedan Mille Investment Limited and
Urban Laundry.
Others were
Advanced Multi-Links Services Limited,
Spray Resources,
Al-Ishaq Global Resources Limited,
Himark Intertrades,
Charblecom Concept Limited, and
Wudatage Global Resources.
Treynor Soft Ventures,
Fyrstrym Global Concepts Limited,
Samarize Global Nigeria Limited, and Zahraddeen Haruna Shahru were also included
The CBN announced the removal of the restriction on Tuesday, July 26, 2023 in a circular signed by A.M. Barau on behalf of the CBN director of banking supervision and also directed banks to inform the account holders of the ban lift.
The circular read, “You are hereby directed to vacate the Post-No-Debit restriction placed on the accounts of the under-listed bank customers at our instance.”
“You are also required to inform the concerned customers of the vacation accordingly.”
Some of the companies on the list includes
- Bamboo Systems Technology Limited,
- Escale Oil & Gas Limited,
- Rise Vest Technologies Limited,
- Chaka Technologies Limited,
- abokiFX Limited,
- Nairabet International,
- Northwood Energy Services and
- Proport Marine Limited.
