The Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) has banned cash withdrawals from all bank accounts belonging to the federal, states, and local governments, effective March 1, 2023.
This is according to Director and Chief Executive Officer of the NFIU, Modibbo Tukur.
Mr Tukur said any government official that withdraws cash from public accounts risks investigation by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission, and the Nigeria Police Force in collaboration with the NFIU, depending on the gravity of the situation.
He said all government transactions will be carried out on the basis of electronic transfer if the amount exceeds the approved daily withdrawals by the Central Bank of Nigeria under the new monetary policy.
He added that under the guidelines, only the President could give a waiver for any cash above the approved daily threshold to be withdrawn for any urgent or emergency reasons.
“With the implementation of this guideline, Nigeria has been taken into a non-cash economy with effect from March 1, 2023”, Tukur said.
He revealed that, notwithstanding the implementation of cash withdrawal limitations in the country, state governments withdrew a total of N701 billion cash in excess of the N225 billion set by the federal government, while local governments withdrew N156 billion from 2015 to date.
The NFIU last year had revealed that it recorded over N200bn suspicious transactions from government accounts.
At an event, he disclosed that every year the agency used to have report of about, N100bn suspicious transaction, but In 2019 alone, it had over N200bn suspicious transactions from government accounts. So, you can now see the link between election crime and cash,” Tukur represented by Mallam Badaru Abubakar said.
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