July 31, 2022
By Emma Ujah, Abuja Bureau Chief
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) did not direct Deposit Money Banks to seize fund in Community Associations’ Savings Accounts.
There has been apprehension among members of Community Development Associations, Cooperative Societies and Social Clubs over reports that accounts held by such organisations which were not properly registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) or appropriate government agencies would be closed and their funds seized.
Anxiety among members of the affected associations heightened following a podcast which has gone viral in the social media on the subject.
A lady had claimed in the podcast that all associations which failed to regularise their documentation before July 12, 2022 would lose their funds and advised them to quickly withdraw their savings.
She had attached a letter written by a DMB to its corprate account holders as proof.
However, investigations by Vanguard indicated that there was no such directive by the CBN.
A top official of CBN said, at the weekend, “How can a bank takeover anybody’s or group’s money? That’s not possible. What the bank said was that associations and the likes should regularize their accounts in accordance with CAMA provisions and nothing more.”
As learnt, the associations were expected to register with either CAC or ministry of trade & cooperatives, depending on the status of the organizations and that there was nothing to panic about.
The directive of the apex bank, it was learnt, was to ensure appropriate complies with the Know You Customer (KYC) in the Nigerian banking sector.
Vanguard gathered that some banks failed to strictly adhere to the policy which prompted the CBN to issue the directive to ensure that members of such associations complied by regularising their documents.
