The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has said it did not direct Deposit Money Banks to seize funds in Community Associations’ Savings Accounts.

Recall that The Lawyer had earlier reported that most of Nigeria’s banking service providers recently commenced the process of closing down the bank accounts of unregistered associations and societies domiciled in their respective banks pursuant to a directive of the Central Bank of Nigeria to that effect.

It was reported that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had recently directed that all Community Based Association bank accounts opened without CAC Certificate be closed on or before July 12, 2022.

In view of the said directive, some banks proceeded to notify their customers of the development and urged them to take steps to regularize such affected accounts.

Since then, there has been apprehension among members of Community Development Associations, Cooperative Societies and Social Clubs over reports that accounts held by such organizations which were not properly registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) or appropriate government agencies would be closed and their funds seized.

Anxiety among members of the affected associations heightened following a podcast that has gone viral in social media on the subject.

A lady had claimed in the podcast that all associations which failed to regularise their documentation before July 12, 2022 would lose their funds and advised them to quickly withdraw their savings.

She had attached a letter written by a DMB to its corporate account holders as proof.

However, investigations by The Lawyer indicated that there was no such directive by the CBN.

A top official of CBN who spoke to press on condition of anonymity, said, “How can a bank take over anybody’s or any group’s money? That’s not possible. What the bank said was that associations and the like should regularise their accounts in accordance with CAMA provisions and nothing more.”

As learnt, the associations were expected to register with either CAC or Ministry of Trade & Cooperatives, depending on the status of the organisations and that there was nothing to panic about.

The directive of the apex bank, it was learnt, was to ensure appropriate compliance with the Know Your Customer (KYC) requirement in the Nigerian banking sector.