Bank CEOs: Customers Abusing Forex Requirement

*‘Sales process to be digitalised’

The Bankers’ Committee has raised the alarm that bank customers have started abusing the ban on the sale of foreign exchange (forex) by Bureaux de Change (BDCs).

Rising from their meeting yesterday, the bankers said they have seen incidents of customers presenting fake documents such as expired passports, invalid flight tickets or open tickets that are cancelled after they acquire the forex.

Some bank customers have been accused of requesting for forex in excess of what they require.

Managing Director of Guarantee Trust Bank, Segun Agbaje, while speaking to the issue said banks do not want “fraudulent transactions taking place” in the guise of forex transaction.

He said banks have witnessed disturbing activities by customers demanding for forex. Specifically, he mentioned the submission of questionable flight tickets and the request for more forex than the customers may need.

On how the forex market is doing since the ban, Agbaje said legitimate demands for Basic Travel Allowance (BTA) and Personal Travel Allowance (PTA), medical needs and educational purposes “are working very well”.

He urged bank customers to consider putting their forex in cards as the Banker’s Committee is considering digitizing the process. Banks and their staff he assured are being held accountable if forex infractions are traced to them while the CBN is holding the banks themselves on a short leash to prevent fraudulent activities by the banks when transacting forex deals.

Managing Director of Citi Bank, Mrs Iretiogo Samuel Ogbu said “there will be sanctions where people abuse the system. We want forex allocated to legitimate users because we have noticed that some customers are using fake documents”.

On her part the Managing Director of FCMB Yemisi Edun said banks are “ready and prepared to support the initiative and all banks are attending to their customers”.

Banks, she said, “have established portals” in an attempt to check the activities of unscrupulous customers who want to take advantage of the forex ban.

According to her, “we do not want people to gain the system, there are ways and means of tracking this. We have noticed behaviours where customers submit flight tickets then cancel after they get forex. We have ways of tracking this”.

“Instead of carrying cash we want to encourage customers to use their banks when they want to buy the invisibles. CBN is ready to attend to the demands and we will report fraudsters to the law enforcement agencies”.

Herbert Wigwe of Access Bank said work on the National Theater has started earnestly, and most of the contracts will be awarded in September, 2021.

He said the Banker’s Committee will give support to local contractors, stressing that already “most of the jobs are being run by local contracting firms”.

Stanbic IBTC’s Managing Director, Wole Adeniyi, said the renovation of the National Theater “will bring back the past glory of the National Theater and it will compare to the best in the world. When completed, it will be better in glory than similar edifices in South Africa and Rwanda.