- Adebutu, family members, Bet9ja co-founder, foreign nationals on list
The Central Bank of Nigeria has ordered banks to provide the domiciliary account statements of some high profile customers and other accounts linked to the customers through the Bank Verification Number.
It disclosed this in a letter to all the banks with the number, ‘BSD/DIR/GEN/LAB/13/063, dated September 15, titled ‘Request for statement of accounts’, signed by the Director of Banking Supervision, CBN, Z. Marcus.
The Deposit Money Banks were ordered to send the details to five listed email addresses by the CBN after listing the names of 16 individuals on the letter.
Some of the individuals recently had their company’s bank accounts frozen over forex infractions.
The customers listed included Chief Kesington A. Adebutu; Adebisi A. Adebutu; Ajibola Bankole Adebutu; Olanipekun Orekoya Adebutu; and Olasegun Oladiran Adebutu. The Adebutus are directors of Premier Lotto.
They list also includes Adekunle O. Soname and Ayodeji Ojuroye, owners of owner of Bet9ja.
Others names are Akinola Adekunle Alabi, founder of NairaBet and member of the House of Representatives; Oluwadamilare Olubukola Alabi; Oluwafemi Babalola; and Adetayo Cosmas Adesanwo.
Some foreigners that do business in the country on the list are David Patrick Grogan; Domenico Giovando; Mauro Ripamonti; Charbel Jabbour Chidiac; and Byron Powell.
A number of the persons on the list are linked to the betting industry.
Attempts to speak with Akinola Alabi proved abortive as he neither responded to calls nor a text message on Wednesday.
A source expressed worry on the light that had been beamed on the members of Adebutu’s family.
The source said, “Apart from being directors of their father’s betting business, these men (the Adebutus) have their own businesses. I know one of them that is into oil business.
“Their businesses have to do with forex; so, they cannot do without using forex.”
Part of the letter to the bank read, “You are required to furnish us with the domiciliary account statements (Excel and PDF format of the under-listed individuals including the domiciliary accounts linked to them by the Bank Verification Number.
“The statement should cover the period January 1, 2013 to July 31, 2020.”
When contacted on the reason for the accounts, the CBN declined to make any comment.
However, it should be recalled that the CBN recently instructed banks to place a post-no-debit on the bank accounts of 38 companies.
It stated in a circular to the banks: “You are hereby required to place the under listed accounts on post-no-debit with immediate effect and revert with the account names, numbers, currencies and balances of all accounts placed on PND.”
The affected accounts belonged to betting companies, bureau de change companies and some logistics companies.
The report stated that the companies were accused of forex infractions, moving forex abroad without the required authorisation and economic sabotage.
InfraCredit completes drawdown of AfDB’s $10m loan agreement
InfraCredit, an ‘AAA’ rated specialised infrastructure credit guarantee institution, says it has completed the drawdown of $10m subordinated unsecured 10-year facility under the subordinated loan agreement with the African Development Bank, an international financial institution and multilateral development bank.
It said this in a statement on Wednesday entitled ‘InfraCredit completes drawdown of AfDB $10m subordinated unsecured 10-year facility.’
A statement by the bank’s Director of Financial Sector, Stefan Nalletamby, at the time of the bank’s board approval of the facility, said, “The bank’s support will strengthen the capital base of InfraCredit, underpinning the expansion of the company’s core business of guaranteeing of bonds issued to fund infrastructure projects.
“This adds to the bank’s existing initiatives to mobilise domestic institutional savings and stimulate non-sovereign local debt capital market development in Nigeria.
“This ultimately helps to increase private sector financing for critical infrastructure projects in key sectors including energy, agriculture, water, health and education, through local capital markets.”
Specifically, the statement said the facility would help to increase private sector financing for critical infrastructural projects in sectors such as power, renewable energy, telecommunications, healthcare, transportation and agriculture, among others.
It stated, “This investment by AfDB demonstrates the strong investor confidence in the fundamentals of InfraCredit’s business and will promote the deepening of the local debt capital market.
“Pursuant to the drawdown, InfraCredit’s capital base will increase to $146 (N58.5bn).”
The Chief Executive Officer, InfraCredit, Chinua Azubike, stated, “Despite the impact of COVID-19, and changes to macro-economic assumptions, we are pleased to have reached yet another milestone in our pursuit to strengthen our robust balance sheet and guarantee issuing capacity.”
PPPRA gazettes market-based pricing regime for petrol
The Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency has gazetted a market-based pricing regime for petrol.
Spokesperson of the agency, Kimchi Apollo, stated on Wednesday that with the new gazette, oil marketers were now empowered to fix petrol price in accordance with the market realities.
He told our correspondent in Abuja that the gazette on pricing regime for petrol was issued in March 2020.
The PPPRA had in March this year declared that petrol price would be determined by the forces of demand and supply.
It stated that the price of crude oil in the international market would to a large extent determine the cost of petrol domestically.
The Executive Secretary, PPPRA, Abdulkadir Saidu, had said the agency would continue to ensure that the downstream oil sector was deregulated in a way that both oil marketers and consumers of petrol enjoyed the benefit of deregulation.
