Following the order of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the identities, including names and Bank Verification Numbers (BVNs) of foreign exchange defaulters have been exposed on the websites of ten Nigerian banks.

Investors King recalls that the CBN had earlier instructed Nigerian banks to publish names and BVNs of customers who engage in fraudulent acts to obtain foreign exchange (forex) from banks.

“Consequently, 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”, the CBN had stated.

About 1,235 names and BVNs of individuals have already been published on the websites of Zenith bank, Access Bank, Fidelity Bank, First City Monument Bank (FCMB), United Bank for Africa (UBA), Stanbic IBTC, Wema Bank, Polaris Bank and Sterling Bank.

987 names of defaulters were published on Zenith bank’s website while Access bank, Wema Bank and Fidelity bank listed 24, 1 and 83 names respectively.

Polaris Bank, IBTC and UBa listed 40, 19 and 3 names respectively while Standard Chartered Bank listed four. Sterling bank however published 66 names, adding that six of its customers presented fake visas or documents to apply for Personal Travel Allowance (PTA).

Earlier this month, the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, had stated that banks must begin to source their forex from export proceeds. He had revealed that the CBN would stop the sale of foreign exchange to banks by the end of the year.

Emefiele who spoke during the launch of CBN’s new forex repatriation scheme, ‘RT200’ had revealed that the decision is in line with the CBN’s new commitment to boost the country’s foreign reserves through proceeds from non-oil exports.

“The era is coming to an end when, because your customers need 100million dollars in foreign exchange or 200 million dollars, you now want to pack all the dollars and pass it to CBN to give you dollars.

“It is coming to an end before or by the end of this year. We will tell them don’t come to the Central Bank for foreign exchange again go and generate your export proceeds”, he had revealed.