₦airaland Forum

A Fidelity Bank official who pleaded for anonymity said: “NLNG was paying dividends from the investment of the government in the company to the NNPC. These dividends had accumulated to about $5 billion.

“The NNPC was investing this dividend payment in a dedicated account as fixed deposits with commercial banks. When the government raised the issue that the dividends should have been paid into the Federation Account, the CBN Governor invited the Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of all the banks that had the funds to Abuja for a meeting on the following a reconciliation of the amount in each bank with the records of CBN/NNPC and agreed a repayment time table of the funds with the banks.

“As at the time the TSA implementation commenced in September 2015 some of the banks had paid back over 50 per cent of the funds based on the repayment timetable.

“This repayment by the banks was the bailout of $2.1bn (N414billion) that was shared by the FGN and state governments in July/August 2015

“When the TSA commenced, the banks reported these funds as part of government deposits they had, but it was not remitted like other TSA funds because of the remittance timetable that had been agreed with the CBN.

“The NNPC invited banks earlier this year to submit a revised repayment plan for the balance of the funds. From the above you can see that the CBN and NNPC had a clear picture of the status of these funds with the banks.”

An official of the FCMB who spoke on the condition of anonymity said: “We are working with the Central Bank of Nigeria on an amicable resolution. This is really a function of the dire macroeconomic situation and liquidity in the FX markets, rather than concealment, or willful non-compliance by banks.”

A Diamond Bank source also said that the bank never concealed any funds.

According to the official, who pleaded not to be named, Diamond Bank had actually paid $500 million to date, adding that the bank approached the CBN to ask that the balance be paid in naira, since the value of the local currency has fallen so badly and because of acute shortage of forex.