BREAKING NEWS, Business
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THE Central bank of Nigeria, CBN, has warned Nigerians in diaspora against sending money through illegal international money transfer operators.
A press release issued by the apex bank and made available to Realnews today said the “attention of the Central Bank of Nigeria has been drawn to the increasing patronage of illegal Money Transfer Operators by Nigerians in the Diaspora for the purpose of home remittances.
According to the CBN, “These unscrupulous operators, who lure unsuspecting customers with ridiculous exchange rate, use Naira accounts opened in local banks ostensibly for legal business to pay out the proceeds to the beneficiaries while channeling the foreign currencies to fund the parallel market.
“This practice has led to non-reporting of such transactions to relevant authorities thereby undermining effective surveillance of the sector as well as leading to discrepancies in statistics on the transactions between countries of origin of remittance and the destination country, Nigeria.”
Against this background, the CBN advised Nigerians in the Diaspora not to patronise unlicensed International Money Transfer Operators, as they stand the risk of losing their hard-earned money.
Similarly, Deposit Money Banks, DMBs, are enjoined to ensure painstaking conduct of “Know Your Customers’ Business”, KYB, in order to prevent the use of accounts for illegal transactions and avoid regulatory sanctions. In addition, such accounts, when discovered, will be blocked and the operators handed over to appropriate law enforcement agencies for prosecution, the bank said.
For the avoidance of doubt, as at November 9, 2016, the CBN authorised licensed international money transfer operators through which money can be remitted to Nigeria on behalf of Nigerians in the Diaspora are: AFTAB CURRENCY EXCHANGE LIMITED, AWS MALTA LIMITED, CAPEREMIT UK LIMITED, CASHPOT LIMITED, CENTREXCARD LIMITED, COLONY CAPITAL LIMITED, CP EXPRESS LIMITED, DAYTONA CAPITAL MANAGEMENT LIMITED, DT&T CORPORATION LIMITED, eTRANSACT LIMITED, FIEM GROUP LLC, DBA PING EXPRESS, FIRST APPLE INC., FIRST TRANSFER INC., FOREN MONEY LIMITED, FUNTECH GLOBAL COMMUNICATIONS LIMITED, GDM TRANSFER PTY LIMITED, HOMESEND S.C.R.L, IDT PAYMENT SERVICES INC., and MONEYGRAM.
The others are: NOUVEAU MOBILE LIMITED, PAGATECH LIMITED, REFITOK INTERNATIONAL LIMITED, RIA FINANCIAL, SANAA CAPITAL, LLC (MONEY4 DIASPORA SERVICES LLC) SMALL WORLD FINANCIAL SERVICES GROUP LIMITED, TCF LIMITED, TRANS-FAST REMITTANCE LLC, UAE EXCHANGE CENTRE LLC, VENTURE GARDEN NIGERIA, VTNETWORK LIMITED, WARI LIMITED, WEBLINK INTERNATIONAL LIMITED, WESTERN UNION, WI-PAY GLOBAL LLC, and WORLDREMIT LIMITED.
“The public is expected to take note and beware of illegal International Money Transfer Operators, IMTOs”, said the release signed by Isaac Okorafor, acting director, Corporate Communications, CBN said.
— Nov 8, 2016 @ 18:45 GMT
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