Stop selling Naira or risk imprisonment, CBN warns

Amid the chaos sorrounding the currency swap, the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, has vow to arrest and prosecute any Point of Sale, POS, operator or payment agents found to be selling Naira notes in the guise of transaction charges, warning that it is an economic crime and an imprsonable offence.

According to the nation’s apex bank the operational arrangement for payment agents is a commission for transaction and not the outrageous charges currently been charged.

This is just as the CBN also expressed the worries that inspite the huge amount of the new currency injected into the system, the monies have not been coming back into the banking system, describing it as an anomaly.

Addressing newsmen at the CBN Office in Yenagoa yesterday, Director, Governor’s Office, CBN, Mr.

Joseph Omayuku, while reading the riot act, said security agencies across the country have began a string operations to arrest and prosecute POS operators and payments agents who defraud Nigerians in the guise of transaction charge.

Omayuku while warning banks and banks staff against sharp unethical practices, he said stern penalty awaits any one proved to be sabotaging the CBN policy, said the federal government, the management of CBN and leaders of the country do not subscribe to any logic that will allow people to operate in such manner.

He assured Nigerians that the apex bank was working towards ensuring normalcy returns to the nation’s financial sector within the week.
His words: “It is expected that as monies are issued by the CBN, these monies will be used and they will circulate and we are expecting as part of the circulation process to be returning in and out of the banking system.

“We have found out that we have not yet seen the huge amount that we have issued which are reflective of economic activities in Nigeria, projected as we have seen based on the tradition and projections. We have found out that the new notes have not been coming back into the banking system, and that is an anomaly.

“Further reviews have indicated that its does appear as if there are unwitting fifth columnists operating in this system and these fifth-columnists as its appears are anybody that has POS access, there are several of them have now taken to the unfortunate activities of turning them to payment agents.

“The CBN since the last two weeks have been operating with the security agencies to try to tame the unfortunate excess that has raised it ugly head in our society. We have seen that this is not abbeting.

“As so from this week that has started today there will be very active string operations going on around the county. The incentive is that they can sell which is not supposed to be, sell our currency to us. You can not be selling Naira to us.

“The operational arrangement for payment agents is that they take a commission for transaction and this commission is not more than N100 or N200 for a transaction of up to N10,000. But we have heard of cases where some people were been charged up to N2000 for a transaction of N10,000. This is certainly fraudulent, this is rouge operations. The government, the management of CBN and the leaders of the country do not subscribe to any logic that will allow people to operate like this.”