Juliet Damilola
Bankers’ Committee has agreed that for the new foreign exchange policy to succeed, there is the need to digitise the process.
Group Managing Director, GTCO, Segun Agbaje, while addressing a virtual meeting with the press at the end of the 357th meeting of Bankers’ Committee, said the new FX policy is working very well regarding to PTA, BTA and invincible and that the banks have taken it upon themselves, along with the regulators, to ensure that it works.
He said, “We are going to digitise the whole thing, which is the way the world is going and the digitisation is being created by the Nigeria Interbank Settlement System (NIBBS) where people will be able to apply for forex online. Today, there is already a NIBBS portal where the banks share information. What we do is that we are trying to make sure rules are respected. You can only apply and get forex once in a quarter.
“If we find that the people are trying to defraud the process, we will tackle it on the portal and the banks are reporting individuals to the CBN. The likely punishment is that your account will be PND (post no deposit) and this means you will not be able to do anything in the banking system. So, why we are committed, this is for people who want to gain the system. This is not for people who have genuine needs.
“Fraudulent transactions and fraudulent individuals will be reported to the CBN and the portal will help us to do this.”
He added that in addition to digitising the system, they are hoping that all transactions will not just be cash.
“The world today is not completely friendly about allowing cash to be used everywhere. We are hoping people will put their money in the cards. If you put your money into your card account, you will be able to use it when you travel without carrying cash. You won’t need to go through the process of declaring your cash when you travel abroad”.
Managing Director of Citi Bank, Iretiogo Samuel-Ogbu, said it is important for people to know that there will be sanctions where people abuse the process because it is all about the desire to ensure that forex is well allocated among legitimate users.
She said, “We are taking steps to be able to examine those that have fraudulent missions. We are here to support the demand and to ensure that people get foreign exchange legitimately”.
In her reaction, Yemisi Edun, First City Monument Bank, said the banks are ready and prepared to support the initiative and have been attending to customers.
“We use digital means to take records and take data. We will not allow fraudulent people. We have noticed that people who after getting the BTA with a ticket later go ahead to cancel the ticket. We will not like people to gain the system. We are using means to ensure that we track this kind of behaviour.
“We will encourage people to use their banks and get their cards instead of cash”, Edun said.
Herbert Wigwe, Group Managing Director, Access Bank, said people should try to comply with laid down rules and that they should not attempt to gain the system because the process is straightforward.
On the project by the Bankers’ Committee towards refurbishing the National Theatre, Wigwe said work is going on without delay and that very soon, work will soon start on the second phase.
He said, “We have started work in earnest and I like to say here that the CBN and the Bankers’ Committee remain committed in their support for the creative industry. We are about to award the second phase to contractors and the project will be delivered by December 2022”.
