By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Foreign exchange (forex) scammers who tarnish fellow citizens’ image may finally be heading to jail with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) getting tough by asking banks to publish on their websites the names of customers who break the rules.
Banks are also to publish the Bank Verification Numbers (BVNs) of such fraudsters to pin them down, but whether Nigeria can and will ever take any measure to stop or even minimise its pandemic of financial fraud is hard to see.
Nigeria’s disease
Financial fraud is Nigeria’s disease.
It is woven into the cultural fabric, perpetrated by thieves as much as by law enforcement agents whose job is to arrest and prosecute criminals.
In villages and in cities, everyone asks, directly or indirectly, for his or her own cut of a booty. They see nothing wrong in stealing especially public funds. Even if they believe it is wrong, they still ‘collect’ from known thieves and sing their praises.
Stories abound that most Nigerians, rich and poor, high and low, from Aso Rock and Governors’ offices to council offices and bank tellers, all are in on the game. Just name your price. Even the courts are riven with corruption as judges grab bribes.
Only very, very few Nigerians refrain from financial fraud.
The CBN issued a circular to all banks lamenting that it has “received and noted with concern reports of sharp practices by some unscrupulous customers to circumvent the new CBN policy on the sale of forex for overseas personal and business travel”.
The fraudulent practices “include the use of fake visas and cancellation of air tickets after purchase of PTA/BTA,” the circular said, per The Nation.
CBN Banking Supervision Department Director, Haruna Mustafa, signed the circular, which noted that “this trend, if not curbed, portends risk to the integrity and stability of the forex market.”
All banks are “to publish on their websites the names and BVN of defaulting customers who present fake travel documents or cancel their tickets and fail to return the purchased PTA/BTA within two (weeks) as stipulated in the customer declaration form signed by them.”
Prior to this directive, The Nation adds, most banks had written to their customers pledging to provide forex for Personal Travel Allowance (PTA), Business Travel Allowance (BTA), overseas education, medical, and other eligible transactions.
Forex purchase rules
CBN rules for forex purchase include
· Forex shall be sold for Legitimate Travel Purpose Only.
· Bank customers are to provide a valid passport and a valid visa to an international destination.
· Only valid travel documents, like tickets to an international destination outside West Africa and Cameroon, are accepted.
· Return ticket must have a travel date not more than 14 days from the date of PTA/BTA purchase.
· Bank customers can only apply for PTA/BTA once in a quarter.
· PTA is limited to a maximum $4,000 per quarter per applicant.
· BTA is limited to a maximum $5,000 per quarter per applicant.
· Customers are to return purchased PTA/BTA to their bank within two weeks from the date of purchase if not utilised for the intended purpose or if the scheduled trip is cancelled.
· A forex purchaser cannot apply on behalf of a third party.
· Forex must be sold directly to applicants who shall be Nigerians aged 18 years and above who have BVN.
· False application and use of fake documents to purchase PTA/BTA is a financial crime punishable by law.
· Defaulters “may face sanctions that include being barred from accessing FX from the official FX market in the future, restrictions on their bank accounts for such periods as may be determined by the CBN as well as possible criminal prosecution.”