NFIU Bans Cash Withdrawals From Government Bank Accounts

• NFIU has banned cash withdrawals from government bank accounts.

• All relevant government transactions will be carried out on the basis of electronic transfer from March 1.

• Under the guidelines, only the President can give a waiver for any cash above the approved daily threshold to be withdrawn.

Eko Hot Blog reports that the Nigerian Financial and Intelligence Unit (NFIU) has banned cash withdrawals from government accounts that exceed the approved daily withdrawals by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) under the new monetary policy.

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The Director and Chief Executive Officer of the NFIU, Modibbo Tukur, announced the new development at a news conference in Abuja on Thursday.

Tukur raised the alarm that despite the introduction of the cash withdrawal limits in the country, state governments withdraw a total of N701 billion cash above the N225 billion withdrawn by the federal government and N156 billion withdrawn by the local governments in the country between 2015 to date.

“The rate of withdrawals above the threshold from public accounts has been alarming, over N701billion has been withdrawn in cash from 2015 till date,” the NFIU boss said.

“The NFIU had told banks and government agencies at all levels to go fully digital by moving online, as all transactions involving public money must be routed through the banks for the purpose of accountability and transparency.

“This is not reversible as we are only enforcing the law. As far as we are concerned, Nigeria will become a full non-cash economy by March 1, 2023 this year. As a consequence, any government official that withdraws even one naira cash from any public account from March 1 will be investigated and prosecuted in collaboration with relevant agencies like EFCC, ICPC and the NPF.”

He therefore directed federal, state and local governments in the country to put necessary measures in place to ensure the smooth operationalisation of the new policy

Particularly, the different tiers of government are to deploy technology and train their staff to be able to apply the new policy from the stipulated date.

Tukur said, under the guidelines, only the President can give a waiver for any cash above the approved daily threshold to be withdrawn for any urgent or emergency reasons.

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“For government exigencies, only the President has the power to grant any waiver to any government official considering the importance of the situation; either for national security, health, or other important reasons,” he added.

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