The new Naira notes
State governors kick against new cash withdrawal limits from public accounts, as NFIU insists ‘no going back’ on policy
Following rejection by state governors in the country, under the aegis of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), of the newly-introduced guidelines on cash withdrawals from all government accounts issued by the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU), the latter has insisted that there is no going back on the policy.
It would be recalled that rising from a forum which issued a communiqué, Saturday, at the end of its virtual meeting held with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele, last Thursday night, the state governors declared that the recent NFIU Advisory and Guidelines on cash transactions were simply outside the agency’s legal remit and mandate.
They, however, resolved to liaise with the CBN and the NFIU in advancing genuine objectives within the confines of the laws.
The governors further set up a six-man committee to work with the CBN with a view to resolving the impasse.
Meanwhile, reacting to the state governors’ rejection of the new cash withdrawal limits, the NFIU, Saturday, insisted that there is no going back on the policy, as it maintains that it acted within the confines of the law in issuing the guidelines.
Director, NFIU, Modibbo Hamman Tukur, while fielding questions by State House Correspondents, Saturday, defended the policy saying instead that the guidelines ‘were meant to help the Governors not to fight them or any public servant.’
“First of all we are ready to partner with the 6 man committee they set up. We will enlighten them.
“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,” said Tukur.
A statement released by the NFIU, through its Chief Media Analyst, Ahmed Dikko, Saturday, explained further that the country had ‘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.’
According to Dikko, ‘to eternally guarantee this kind gesture is to automatically keep abusing our laws.’
“We feel communities must move on by accommodating changes and adjusting to new developments.
“Last time we issued the Local government Guidelines we were taken to court but we won the case.
“But more importantly we need to understand that in recent past United States FIU and United Kingdom FIU penalized Nigerian Banks with fines of millions of U.S Dollars due to non compliance. Internally, non compliance with sections cited in the recent Guidelines comes with heavy penalties on financial institutions. We did, on gentlemanly pretext, avoid until this moment putting a fine to financial institutions expecting, gradual learning and adjustments.
“We want every stake holder to appreciate that we cooperated for too far and long. We held deep breath while defending these deficiencies Internationally, just to continue to remain in the International pay points and competing with others.
“Finally, we also clearly stated in the preceding advisory, that the entire financial system suffered excess liquidity and liquidity ratio infringements which put hedging pressure of demand for foreign currency and gradually destroying the value of the Naira and above all creating wide room for money laundering and terrorism affecting significantly the rural populace on top of general inflation in the open market place.
“We are in support of working together to stop these challenges and in most progressive manner,” said Dikko.
