a separate desk to meet the legitimate forex demands of customers. However, now it has been observed that unscrupulous customers are finding their way around the new CBN policy. According to the Director of the Banking Supervision Department of the central bank, Haruna Mustafa, these customers follow fraudulent practices, including the use of forged visas, and the cancellation of air tickets after the purchase of foreign currency in the form of personal and business travel allowance. “This trend, if not curbed, portends risk to the integrity and stability of the forex market,” he noted.
In order to tackle this situation, the apex bank, on Tuesday (31 August) instructed all commercial banks to publish on their websites the names and Bank Verification Numbers of customers who fraudulently obtain forex from them. “[…] further to the various measures already put in place, all banks are hereby directed to publish on their websites the names and BVN of defaulting customers who present fake travel documents or cancel their tickets and fail to return the purchased PTA/BTA within two (weeks) as stipulated in the customer declaration form signed by them,” CBN said in a statement.
