The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has instructed banks to place a post-no-debit on the bank accounts of 38 companies, including that of Premier Lotto belonging to Adebutu Kessington a.k.a Baba Ijebu.
The post-no-debit order is said to have affected accounts belonging to betting companies, bureau de change companies and some logistics companies.
According to reports, the companies are being accused of forex infractions, moving forex abroad without the required authorisation and “economic sabotage”.
Information made available to TheCable is that one of the gaming companies moved $420 million abroad under the guise of purchasing software, however, the funds were later traced to the foreign accounts of some of the directors of the company.
“The forex was sourced from the black market, thereby putting pressure on the exchange rate. The gaming companies are awash with naira which sit in their bank accounts, so they devised a way of moving the funds abroad,” the source said.
The memo signed and dated September 4 by Bello Hassan, Director of Banking Supervision, read:
“You are hereby required to place the under listed accounts on post-no-debit with immediate effect and revert with the account names, numbers, currencies and balances of all accounts placed on PND”.
According to banking terms, post-no-debit means that all debit transactions, including ATMs and cheques, on a particular account have been blocked but money can be deposited into the accounts.
Affected companies on the CBN list are Premier Lotto Limited, 3D Scanners Bureau De Change Limited, Blue Wall Nigeria Limited, JNFX International Limited and Northline Limited.
Others are SV Gaming Limited, R&S Lotto Limited, TM Gaming Networks Limited, Escale Oil and Gas Limited, Barkoli Trading Company Limited, Godoni Enterprises Limited.
According to the CBN, only the listed companies will be placed on PND, however, all related accounts are excluded.
Below is a complete list of companies on CBN’s PND order:
