Nigerian bank customers have begun to report that their accounts have been closed. Some customers have begin to receive mails to notify them about their account closure based on the directive given by the Central Bank on the 5th of February 2020. In the circular released regarding the ban, banks were instructed to close all accounts of crypto exchangers and individuals who used their accounts for crypto-related operations. Few days later, banks like Access Bank and Guaranty Trust Bank have started to effect the directive of the ban. Accounts of crypto exchangers and individuals that use their accounts to trade in cryptocurrencies have begun to witness closure.
Some customers have raised alarm that they had only used their accounts once or twice for crypto-related operations in the distant past and still got their accounts closed.
An instance of the account closure saga is the case of on Mr James Chijindu who went to shop for food and groceries at a Lagos mall and got his Guaranty Trust Bank and First Bank debit cards declined. After reaching out to GTBank, he was informed that his account had been closed in accordance with CBN’s directive. However, as at the time of this writing, he was yet to get a response from First Bank and wasn’t sure if his account was closed too. According to him, he had not used his first bank account for any crypto-related operation. This left him with unanswered questions like if his BVN was used to block his account. This incidence raised concerns from bank users. Many people have begun to wonder if their other accounts that have not been used for crypto-related operations would get blocked because of the connection of BVN it shares with accounts that have been used for crypto-related operations.
Banks like Access Bank and Guaranty Trust Bank already sent notifications via email informing their customers of account closure in accordance to the Central Bank’s directive.
The imminent week promises to be filled with account closure as more banks effect the directive.
Ibhadojemu Lucky Emmanuel is a graduate of Education and Economics from the University of Benin. He has a passion for tech and business and has been writing professionally for over a period of five years. He's written across various topics and segments and knew tech-business was it when he first stumbled on it. He has a great passion for music and arts, and wants to visit as many countries as he can someday.
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
