The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has instructed banks to lift the post-no-debit restriction on the bank accounts of 440 individuals and companies, including that of fintechs like Bamboo, Risevest, and a sports betting company, Nairabet.
The apex bank in a circular signed by its Director of Banking Supervision, A.M. Barau, and sent to all banks, directed the banks to inform all the affected customers, comprising companies and individuals of the decision.
Also among the fintech companies whose accounts have been unfrozen were Chaka Technologies Limited and Trove Technologies Limited.
The accounts also include that of a popular crypto exchange, Yellow Card Financial.
The CBN did not state the reasons for freezing those accounts and why the restriction is being vacated now. The terse instruction on the list of the 440 accounts reads:
“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.”
Recall that in August 2021, a federal high court in Abuja granted the request of the CBN to freeze accounts of some fintech companies for 180 days.
The accounts included that of Rise Vest Technologies Limited, Bamboo Systems Technology Limited, Bamboo Systems Technology Limited OPNS, Chaka Technologies Limited, CTL/Business Expenses, and Trove Technologies Limited.
In a court paper filed at that time, the apex bank said it was investigating ‘illegal foreign exchange transactions’ by the fintech companies.
The CBN had submitted in a motion filed at the court that “the investigation being carried out concerns what has been discovered to be serious infractions by the defendants/respondents in connection with some foreign exchange transactions and non-documentation by the defendants/respondents in violation of the extant laws and regulations, particularly the Foreign Exchange (Monitoring and Miscellaneous Provisions) Act and the Central Bank of Nigeria foreign exchange manual.”
Earlier that year, the bank had also announced that it got orders from the Federal High Court, Abuja division, to freeze 194 bank accounts belonging to firms and Bureaux de Change to enable it to conduct investigations into suspicious activities.
The post-no-debit status imposed on these accounts prevents any transactions involving money from going out of the accounts.
In simpler terms, these accounts can receive funds but cannot perform any withdrawals or payments, including ATM transactions, cheque payments, credit card transactions, and recurring payments.