Capital repatriation: CBN to invite MTN, Stanbic IBTC, 3 others

The governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele has disclosed that the apex bank would invite leading telecommunication operator – MTN and the four banks sanctioned recently for capital repatriation to prove their cases.

The four banks are: Standard Chartered Bank, Stanbic-IBTC, Citibank, and Diamond Bank.

Emefiele gave the hint on Tuesday while briefing Finance Correspondents on the outcome of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting in Abuja.

He said: “We will go through the pain again to invite the banks and MTN to prove their case, because it is normal that we should allow them to clear themselves and that is what we are doing and I believe that in due course we should make a final call on this subject.”

The CBN governor, however, justified apex bank decision requesting MTN to refund $ 8.1 billion stating that, “what CBN sought by asking MTN to return that money is that we want a reversal of that transaction because it was not finally authorized by the CBN.”

He added that because the funds were moved through these four banks, the quantum of dollars that passed through the banks, was what CBN said the banks needed to remit back, or the company needed to remit back to the CBN through the banks.

“It did not mean that these were the bank’s obligation. We understand that there was some interpretation in some quarters that, aside from the naira penalty, that there was some conclusion that those dollars attributed to have been remitted by these banks on behalf of MTN were indeed the liabilities of the bank.

That is why we provided a clarification to the banks when they called us that the liability is that of MTN and not theirs and that the CBN was not in any position or in any way going to debit the bank for the dollar because it was not their liability.

It’s important to note that this was an investigation that started about two years ago”, he said

Emefiele said that by CBN action, “he feel vindicated that in the history of the banking sector, at least I gave a chance where the regulator, the governor sitting in the meeting, the Director Banking Supervision with over 20 examiners sitting in a hall, with the company and the banks, asking them to resolve the issue, because we agreed that MTN is an important telecom company in Nigeria.”