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On
25th of January 2011, I came
across a Press Release on Page 27 of the
Monday, January 24 2011 edition of THISDAY
Newspaper. The advert was from the Committee
of Chief Compliance Officers of Banks in
Nigeria (CCCOBIN) titled UPDATE OF BANK
ACCOUNT INFORMATION.
The Press Release was in apparent support of
the Central Bank of Nigeria Directive
directing all bank customers to update their
bank accounts’ information on or before
January 31, 2011 without failure. The
CCCOBIN urged all Nigerians to support the
exercise, warning that “the CBN has directed
that operations on the accounts of customers
who fail to update their information would
be suspended”.
I went to to the website of CCCOBIN as given
on the Press Release
www.cccobin.org and tried to get a
contact detail for them in order to register
my protest at the lack of consideration
given to the millions of Nigerians who live
outside Nigeria and who have accounts with banks in Nigeria.
The email address given in the website is
info@cccobin.org.ng , so I sent my
protest to this address.
Wonders of wonders, the email bounced back.
I had urged over 2000 people on my Contact
list to register their protest to this email
address, and many of then responded to tell
me their messages bounced back
undeliverable.
When are we ever going to learn to do things
the way they should be done, for crying out
loud?
How can we get the CBN and Governor Lamido
Sanusi, who has just been conferred, and
deservedly too, the Man of the Year Award in
Nigeria for 2010, to listen to Nigerians
abroad, and review this directive to at
least ease the concerns of these set of
Nigerians?
Below is my message sent to CCCOBIN and just
a few of the many responses I received.
Sirs
I have no exception to your support for the
CBN Directive regarding the update on bank
information of their customer. In fact I
applaud this directive.
However, the CBN, and with your support have
fallen victim of the so called "Nigerian
Factor", the usual "fire-brigade approach"
to very serious matters, and a deficiency
of thoughtfulness and lack of concern for
the society at large.
It does not matter that the date for the
update has been extended to 31 January 2011,
but the fact that in proposing this
exercise, careful thought has not been
considered for the millions of Nigerians
living outside the country and who have at
one time or the other opened all kinds of
accounts in all the banks operating in
Nigeria. And this even includes those
with Domiciliary Accounts with foreign
currency in them.
Obviously, the Central Bank of Nigeria has not thought of the
inconvenience and impracticality that this
will cause to these millions of Nigerians.
Throughout this exercise, not once have
I heard or read of the CBN's consideration
for these set of Nigerians
Is the CBN and yourselves saying that these
millions of Nigerians should come to Nigeria
simply and only because of updating their
account details with their banks, while
spending hundreds of dollars,
pounds, etc. just to come and participate in
this exercise, so that they will be able to
operate their accounts?
Are you now saying that failure of these
Nigerians to come to Nigeria to
update their accounts will result in the
suspension of their accounts with
considerable sums of Naira in such accounts?
If this is so, all the banks in Nigeria will have a fight on their
hands as you cannot legally bar these
Nigerians from operating their accounts.
I submit that whenever such matters of
national interest are considered, due
consideration MUST be given to the millions
of Nigerians, who are living abroad and
still have a stake in the well-being,
economic development and socio-political
issues of this country.
Nigerians are not living in isolation.
Nigerians are no longer confined within the
boundaries of the entity called Nigeria - we must have a voice.
Nigerians living outside the country have
not voting rights; and the CBN wants to deny
us access to the millions, if not billions
of money we despatch home everyday.
I would therefore call on the Central Bank
of Nigeria and you, the Committee of Chief
Compliance Officers of Banks in
Nigeria
(CCCOBIN) to do a rethink on this issue and
come up with a satisfactory solution to this
problem. Nothing is written in stone and we
do not have to re-invent the wheel. This
exercise could have been thought of and
implemented in an entirely different manner
that will eliminate concerns and
inconvenience not only to those Nigerians in
Nigeria, but also to those scattered all
over the world.
This message has been Bcc'd to over 2000
contacts who will perhaps be getting in
touch with you to protest
Akintokunbo A Adejumo
Ibadan, Nigeria
Responses from Concerned Nigerians, Home and
Abroad.
Sirs
I am in support of this memo 110%. Please
let me know what others in Diaspora want to
do, if consideration is not given to us. If
not for committed citizens like you, most of
us are not even aware of such exercise.
Thanks for your commitment to make Nigeria a better country to call
home.
Mojisola Ogunsina Odegbami
United States of America
Good cause, valid points.
For those of
us living in Nigeria, it has
not been bed of roses either. You can hear
of Banks telling us that the address on NEPA
bill is not in tandem with the address
quoted on the form or that ONLY driving
license, National Passport or National I.D
is recognized for this exercise. Must all of
us know how to drive, carry a national
passport with all its attendant hiccup at
securing or a National ID exercise that was
not concluded and making millions of us not
possessing the card?. I am still waiting for
my account to be suspended and you can be
sure that a lot of litigations will have to
follow.
I just hope
that sense of reason will prevail and things
will be done normally.
BABALOLA, A.O.
Lagos, Nigeria
Thanks Brother.
That's why
NEPA, NITEL, WATER WORKS or so are NOT
working.
I support CBN
but they must give Nigerians living abroad
time to get complete the exercise.
CBN, Please,
Consider us and give us more time.
Announce it
on CNN, SKY, Fox News and other suitable
networks to reach millions of Nigerians.
Regards.
Emiola Odewumi.
United Kingdom
Dear Sir/Ma,
I consider the CBN directive (account
updates) an ill advised policy especially
for us living overseas. How could you/CBN
give a deadline, when most of Nigerians in
Diaspora have not even hear about the on
going process. I do not hesitate in asking
you/CBN to come up with proper arrangements
that will take into account those of us
living overseas or maintain the status quo
for us in Diaspora.
Chinedu Vincent Akuta
Leicester-UK
Hello Mr Adejumo
Thanks for this very important message which
you have sent to these people
Do you think they don't know what they are
doing? In actual fact, they know quite
vividly that Nigerians who live abroad
account for the biggest percentage of
savings/investments in Nigeria. The
investments have been rising from one year
to the next for the past decade or two. It
is quite obvious they are very much up to a
trick! That indeed is my opinion. If they
are not, tell me what they may do with
billions of hard earned money of Nigerian
who live and work abroad after the deadline
of 31st January.
Quite rightly, you have made it clear to
them that this set of people will not just
keep quiet and watch them take away what is
not theirs. Even if people want to travel
out to Nigeria for this reason, the timing
may be another factor. In my case, I may not
be able to take time off work until after
June. Are they saying I will forfeit my
money?
They surely need to think again.
Best wishes, Mr Adejumo
Ade Arogundade
London,
UK
This is very
thoughtful of you on behalf of Nigerians in
Diaspora. In the very essence every body has
at one time or the other provided these
banks resident addresses overseas and the
know this. Nigeria
thinking is always very short-sighted and I
wonder if Nigerians in Diaspora are no
longer Nigerians? Last year
Nigeria
in Diaspora remitted legitimate over USD10B.
Does this not make them think how to
maximise the potential of this group of
people when the reverse is the case for
those inside the country?
To even think
of it the banks have not written anybody in
this regard instead one have to contact them
for situation update as if their service is
a privilege.
Thank you
very much
Andy
Egbase
Calgary, Canada
Sirs,
To add to
what Mr. Adejumo has written here. Some of
us in diaspora have been trying to get in
touch with our various banks for more
information on the on-going exercise.
All to no
avail, this so saddening, and so
discouraging when we contribute so much to
the Nation's economy. Kindly help us look
into this, as this is a serious cause for
concern.
Omobonike Adejumo
London, UK
Kudos.
In fact when I opened my accounts, one in
2003/4, a couple of others in 2006/7, these
Know Your Customer (KYC) requirements were
in place (definitely 2006/7) and I complied
with them at the time. Why do we have to go
through this process again? I really
struggle to see the reason for this messing
about!!!
‘Femi
Okutubo
Publisher
The Trumpet
Newspaper, UK
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