Cash Withdrawal From Public Accounts Banned

The Federal Government is set to activate the stoppage of cash withdrawal from all public accounts with immediate effect.

In place of cash withdrawals, public officers are to open domiciliary accounts in foreign and local currencies ahead of the commencement of the new policy, which comes on the heels of the new Naira withdrawal policy introduced by the Central Bank of Nigeria.

A statement released to the media onTuesday, disclosed that the Director/CEO of the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU), Modibbo Hamman Tukur, gave the new directive at a parley with the Chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmud Yakubu, in Abuja.

The action is also said to have been activated following the observation that most cash withdrawals from government accounts including payments for estacode for public officials, are often in excess of the cash withdrawal limit provided by the Money Laundering Act.

The development, according to the NFIU boss, “exposes innocent public officials to being liable to imprisonment.”