The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission,EFCC has drawn battlelines with currency hoarders whose intent is to scuttle the country’s redesign of new currency.
The Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele,had Wednesday announced that the apex bank had obtained the approval of President Muhammadu Buhari, to resign and issue new N200, N500 and N1000 notes that shall come into circulation by December 15, 2022.
Executive Chairman of the EFCC, Abdulrasheed Bawa, warned that his agency will monitor the process to ensure that unscrupulous players and currency speculators and their cohorts among the BDCs do not undermine the exercise.
In a release issued by Wilson Uwujaren, EFCC’s Head, Media & Publicity,the agency’s boss implored banks to be alive to their reporting obligations and not assist unscrupulous customers in laundering suspected proceeds of crimes through their system.
He recalled that the commission had recently taken operational action against currency hoarders in major commercial cities of Nigeria.
“It is therefore pertinent to issue this stern warning to Bureau de Change operators to be wary of currency hoarders who would attempt to seize this opportunity to offload the currencies they had illegally stashed away.”,he said.
The agency’s boss,who noted that currency hoarders readily made their hoard available to criminal enterprise, further stated that the commission will spare no effort to bring to book any financial services operator who runs afoul of extant laws and regulations.
He explained that the objectives which the apex bank seeks to achieve with the redesign and reissue of the higher denomination Naira notes, were in tandem with the objectives of the Money Laundering Prevention Prohibition Act 2022, which criminalizes the conduct of cash transactions above a certain threshold.
According to Section 2 (1) of the Money Laundering Act 2022 “No person or body corporate shall, except in a transaction through a financial institution, make or accept cash payment of a sum exceeding; (a) N5,000,000 or its equivalent, in the case of an individual ; or (b) N10,000,000 or its equivalent, in the case of a body corporate.”
He expressed optimistism that the new currency measure would further boost Nigerians’ embrace of banking culture and encourage the acceptance of cashless transactions.
He described the move by the apex bank as “a well-considered and timely response” to the challenges of currency management which has negatively impacted the country’s monetary policy and security imperatives.
“The EFCC, the CBN and some other regulators in the financial sector have worked closely in the recent past to determine how best to stabilize the country’s monetary policy environment. It is heart-warming that the CBN has demonstrated courage in taking this bold decision which I believe will bring sanity to the currency management situation in Nigeria”, he said.
He implored operators in the Nigerian financial services sector, especially deposit money banks and Bureau De Change (BDC) Operators to work within the guidelines provided by the Central Bank of Nigeria to ensure seamless withdrawal of the old currency.