In the light of the damning allegation that the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, was turned into a cash machine under former President Goodluck Jonathan, top officials of the bank have refuted such claims stressing that the apex bank has beenunduly maligned.
This comes amidst the ongoing probe of the alleged looting of public funds meant for the procurement of arms for which a former National Security Adviser, NSA, Sambo Dasuki and few others have been indicted.
A cross section of Nigerians has fingered the CBN to have acted in concert with Dasuki, distributing the nation’s commonwealth without recourse to due process.
Recently, the Information and Culture Minister, Lai Mohammed, stated “… the nation’s economy suffered a monumental mismanagement and the Central Bank was turned to the ATM or piggy bank of a few people …”
In reaction, top CBN officials said Nigerians need to understand the modus operandi of the apex bank as it relates to its clients.
On how the CBN works, Bank officials stated that when a payment mandate (being instrument to withdraw money) is issued by a client, it will look at such mandate to ensure that the signature tallies with that of the signatory before any dime from such agency’s money can be moved.
“Once this is ascertained, the bank will also check to see that there is enough money in the account before paying; not minding whether the person wants it in cash or electronic transfer. However the person wants it, the apex bank has no option than to pay.“The bank is not an auditor, neither is it an anti-corruption police to pry into what the money is meant for or whether the money will be judiciously utilized,” an official explained.“If for instance, you take a cheque to the bank and you present the cheque to the teller, the teller takes the cheque, looks at it, looks into the account, looks at the signature to verify that it is the same one on file, having also examined your ID, they pay you.“Before they pay you, they are not going to ask what the money is being meant for; neither will they ask you to bring documentation to prove that you have done the contract for which the money is meant,’’ another official said.“Just like individuals have current accounts with commercial banks that is how these agencies have accounts with the CBN. Just like these current account holders write cheques that is how these agencies write mandates requesting CBN to pay out certain sums.“When such mandates get to the CBN, it looks at it, examines it to see that the authorizing officer is the one that approved the mandate and once these things have been certified, we (CBN) will have to pay from that agency’s account,” he added.“These are all agencies that operate an account with the CBN and the accounts are managed by the Banking and Payment Department of the CBN. The agencies’ accounts are funded, if there’s no money in their account, we will have to bounce such mandates,” another source said.“I must emphasize that the CBN is not honoring such mandates from its own resources; it is only doing so from those agencies funds it is holding for them in their own account. There is a lot of ignorance out there. The money the CBN paid out (in Dasuki’s case) is not CBN’s money.”
Meanwhile, the spotlight has been beamed on the former CBN Lamido Sanusi, by the EFCC on Dasuki’s alleged diversion of the $2 billion arms funds.
Current CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele would also be extended an invitation to explain his role in the arms scandal.
Top bank officials across the nation also could possibly soon be invited by the anti-graft agency.
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