CBN freezes bank accounts of firm, two Nigerians over crypto trading

The Central Bank of Nigeria has ordered bank accounts of a company and two individuals be frozen for reportedly trading in cryptocurrency.

This is contained in a Post-No-Debit circular signed on November 3 by the Director of Banking Supervision, J. Y. Mammanand addressed to the banks.

It stated, “You are hereby directed to close accounts of the underlisted bank customers and place the funds in the accounts in suspense accounts for engaging in cryptocurrency trading in contravention of CBN Circular BSD/DIR/PUB/014/001 dated February 5, 2021.”

The Federal Government had banned trading of cryptocurrencies through Nigerian bank accounts claiming that it was being used for money laundering and other financial crimes.

The listed banned accounts belong to two individuals, Nnamdi Francis Okereke and Nwaorgu Kingsley Chibuzor, and a company called TVS Hallmark Service Limited.

In February, the apex bank had ordered banks and other financial institutions to close all customer accounts used in trading cryptocurrencies and other related transactions.

A circular stated that the banks regulator ordered deposit money banks, non-bank financial institutions and other financial institutions to “identify persons and/or entities transacting in or operating cryptocurrency exchanges within their systems and ensure that such accounts are closed immediately.”

Although the apex bank at the time said it was working on reviewing the policy, no new guidelines authorising Nigerians to trade in cryptocurrency have been issued.

In June, it was reported that the Attorney-General Abubakar Malami still traded cryptocurrency on his mobile device despite the ban.

Malami had uploaded a screenshot  on Facebook to show that he had deactivated his Twitter account in line with Buhari regime’s controversial and illegal ban, however a crypto trading app’s icon was displayed.