CBN Freezes Baba Ijebu, Other Companies’ Bank Accounts As Dollar Scarcity Bites Harder In Nigeria

The move by the apex bank comes months after the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission launched an investigation into the activities of Adebutu for alleged tax fraud and economic sabotage.

The Central Bank of Nigeria has frozen the bank accounts of 38 Nigerian companies.

This is as scarcity of dollars at the parallel market during the week forced the naira down to N465 against a United States dollar.

Nigeria is presently facing one of its biggest dollar crunch in recent years with the impact hurting critical sectors of the economy.

In a circular dated September 4, Bello Hassan, CBN’s Director of Banking Supervision, asked banks to place the accounts of the 38 companies on Post-No-Debit (PND) order

“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.

“Note that only the listed entities should be placed on PND, all related accounts are excluded. Your response should be forwarded to the underlisted email addresses Osoladipo@cbn.gov.ng or moabeng@cbn.gov.ng,” part of the circular read.

Among the companies listed by CBN is Premier Lotto owned by Adebutu Kessington, Nigerian billionaire known as Baba Ijebu.

The move by the apex bank comes months after the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission launched an investigation into the activities of Adebutu for alleged tax fraud and economic sabotage.

According to PREMIUM TIMES, Segun, one of Adebutu's children and other management officials of Premier Lotto were in January detained at the EFCC office in Lagos.

According to officials of the commission, the investigation was as a result of a petition submitted by Western Lotto, another betting company run by late Buruji Kashamu.

PREMIUM TIMES quoted EFCC sources as saying that they had identified N5bn revenue that should have been remitted to the Nigerian Government but was allegedly kept aside by the company.

The probe might be expanded to include other betting companies and investigate claims of sharp practices and how some firms allegedly withhold funds from winning customers.

http://saharareporters.com/2020/09/05/cbn-freezes-baba-ijebu-other-companies%E2%80%99-bank-accounts-dollar-scarcity-bites-harder

What of my aza

moneyissweet:
No worry, your 8000 naira still dey in tact.

wakaa

Players beware, no payments for 'too sure' for now

I'm not an Economist but I think the CBN got this wrong.

How can Baba Ijebu and 37 other companies be responsible for the free fall of the naira?

Foolish people.

What about the madam at the top wey dey control the entire country forex market and the other paddy paddys wey dey do round-tripping?.

This cut n join report no make sense

Buhari is about to kill the sport betting industry like he has killed other industries ....Ask yourself how freezing the Business account of Gaming companies can stop the fall of the Naira ? The CBN does not sell dollars to gaming companies yet is blaming them for the abuse of Forex they source by themselves ...You increase Nepa Tarriff , Fuel price , import Tarriff and open international travel all in the same week and you want to blame Baba Ijebu and co for the pressure on the Naira ..the only reason there is pressure on the Naira is Buharis bad leadership which keeps the Naira unstable and the only way for any serious firm to survive is to quickly convert it's earnings to dollars before Buhari bad policies devalue the little you have

They will soon criminalize forex holdings by private citizens so that they can get excuse to confiscate private savings in dollars.

1984 allover again.

What were you fools thinking in recycling that tyrannosaurus back from the dead and making him your president ?

Simplyleo:
I'm not an Economist but I think the CBN got this wrong.

How can Baba Ijebu and 37 other companies be responsible for the free fall of the naira?

I am an economist and I can tell you for free that, sh what u said is 100% right. Cbn freezing baba ijebu account doesn't make any sense and does not effect the economy in any way, Buhari and his blind economic team are just dishing out stupid idea to justify their salary, mofos

APC government is trying to bring the man down before 2023, that is just their game plan. If you know you know

Baba Ijebu must be Wailing and gnashing his teeth right now

Nicklaus619:



I am an economist and I can tell you for free that, shat u said is 100% right. Cbn freezing baba ijebu account doesn't make any sense and does not effect the economy in any way, Buhari and his blind economic team are just dishing out stupid idea to justify their salary, mofos

READ THE ARTICLE...
The coys are allegedly evading tax remittance to the tune of N5bn to the Govt.

Why single out baba ijebu though

Esseite:


READ THE ARTICLE...
The coys are allegedly evading tax remittance to the tune of N5bn to the Govt.

I read it bro, talking about tax evasion, believe me that most companies and industries own by some of our politicians don't pay tax, and most of these companies are multi-million companies, if making every companies and industries pays tax is what will stabilize the scarcity of dollars then they have to do the right thing and make sure everyone of those greedy politicians that have confiscated companies and industries own by state to their own personal companies should be checkmated and made to pay tax too. For instant rochas okorocha's company even after leaving the office had made all his staff working on his personal company to be payrolled in the state nominal role while be could not pay pensioners and owing civil servants salaries and arrears.

Those that make sense to you, especially the clueless government masturbation on irrelevant issues where the problems lays way beyond all of that

Nicklaus619:


I read it bro, talking about tax evasion, believe me that most companies and industries own by some of our politicians don't pay tax, and most of these companies are multi-million companies, if making every companies and industries pays tax is what will stabilize the scarcity of dollars then they have to do the right thing and make sure everyone of those greedy politicians that have confiscated companies and industries own by state to their own personal companies should be checkmated and made to pay tax too. For instant rochas okorocha's company even after leaving the office had made all his staff working on his personal company to be payrolled in the state nominal role while be could not pay pensioners and owing civil servants salaries and arrears.

Those that make sense to you, especially the clueless government masturbation on irrelevant issues where the problems lays way below all of that

I may have my reservations on the Govt , but I think tackling tax evasive coys is good.

Nicklaus619:



I am an economist and I can tell you for free that, shat u said is 100% right. Cbn freezing baba ijebu account doesn't make any sense and does not effect the economy in any way, Buhari and his blind economic team are just dishing out stupid idea to justify their salary, mofos

You are an economist but poor at English comprehension. If you read the report and comprehend, you will realise that there is no correlation between the free fall of the naira and freezing of Baba Ijebu and other's accounts. The accounts were frozen over " alleged tax fraud and economic sabotage "

The report then continued with;

This is as scarcity of dollars at the parallel market during the week forced the naira down to N465 against a United States dollar.

I don't see how you guys could link the scarcity of dollars at the parallel market to the freezing of 38 accounts. Except you are telling us that they were Dollar accounts with millions of dollars.

This article is majorly about Baba Ijebu, other mentioned companies are just washing..

Then, how credible is this news?

GenSpecifics:
They will soon criminalize forex holdings by private citizens so that they can get excuse to confiscate private savings in dollars.

1984 allover again.

What were you fools thinking in recycling that tyrannosaurus back from the dead and making him your president ?

You are on the wrong thread. What you wrote up there bear no connection to this thread.

wirinet:


You are an economist but poor at English comprehension. If you read the report and comprehend, you will realise that there is no correlation between the free fall of the naira and freezing of Babangida Ijebu and other's accounts. The accounts were frozen over " alleged tax fraud and economic sabotage "

The report then continued with;


I don't see how you guys could link the scarcity of dollars at the parallel market to the freezing of 38 accounts. Except you are telling us that they were Dollar accounts with millions of dollars.

In Nigeria we read with inbuilt Sentiment

helinues:
This article is majorly about Baba Ijebu, other mentioned companies are just washing..

Then, how credible is this news?

Are you saying that if Baba Ijebu was involved in tax evasion (and other economic sabotage ), his company should not be penalises because he is immuned from the law?

wirinet:

Are you saying that if Baba Ijebu was involved in tax evasion (and other economic sabotage ), his company should not be penalises because he is immuned from the law?

@ bolded is a conditional statement....

helinues:


@ bolded is a conditional statement....

Correct. The accounts were frozen to allow investigations (that's the standard practise all over the world) and IF , the companies are found to be clean, the accounts are unfrozen.

All these media hype is just blackmail, the accounts of millions of Nigerians get frozen everyday, they don't go to the media crying, they simply go to the banks or relevant authorities to straighten things out.

wirinet:

Correct. The accounts were frozen to allow investigations (that's the standard practise all over the world) and IF , the companies are found to be clean, the accounts are unfrozen.

All these media hype is just blackmail, the accounts of millions of Nigerians get frozen everyday, they don't go to the media crying, they simply go to the banks or relevant authorities to straighten things out.

Exactly... ..

Those who are hating and envy the man are only wasting their time... This man started with pool, not even regular fixed odds but the treble chance which few companies were running away from back then... Then he moved to Ghana lotto before the transformation of pool to online betting

He had paid his dues long time...

wirinet:


You are an economist but poor at English comprehension. If you read the report and comprehend, you will realise that there is no correlation between the free fall of the naira and freezing of Baba Ijebu and other's accounts. The accounts were frozen over " alleged tax fraud and economic sabotage "

The report then continued with;


I don't see how you guys could link the scarcity of dollars at the parallel market to the freezing of 38 accounts. Except you are telling us that they were Dollar accounts with millions of dollars.

The headline was misleading, but either way, baba ijebu ain't the only one evading tax, check out those government companies that are now fully privatized, they ain't paying no tax, if freezing baba ijebu's account will make dollar available in the parallel market, they should do so by freezing all companies and industries account associated to politicians not being selective that's all am saying.

Nicklaus619:



The headline was misleading, but either way, baba ijebu ain't the only one evading tax, check out those government companies that are now fully privatized, they ain't paying no tax, if freezing baba ijebu's account will make dollar available in the parallel market, they should do so by freezing all companies and industries account associated to politicians not being selective that's all am saying.

Obviously the headline was misleading, but you know that very few Nigerians read beyond the headlines.

The fact that Baba Ijebu is not the only one evading tax (allegedly ), does not mean every company and everybody in Nigeria should evade tax.

Baba Ijebu's account has no effect whatsoever on the value of the dollar in the parallel market. Baba Ijebu does his business in naira, he does does not sell dollars to the parallel market.

helinues:


Exactly... ..

Those who are hating and envy the man are only wasting their time... This man started with pool, not even regular fixed odds but the treble chance which few companies were running away from back then... Then he moved to Ghana lotto before the transformation of pool to online betting

He had paid his dues long time...

I honestly doubt Baba Ijebu is evading tax, it might all be a witch hunt. I believe he who's hand are clean fears no evil. Bet9ja had suffered worse witch hunts from both the national assembly and EFCC, and they have always come out unscathed. Kunle Soname (who is a personal friend) leaves no stone unturned to make sure he complies with the law.

wirinet:

Obviously the headline was misleading, but you know that very few Nigerians read beyond the headlines.

The fact that Baba Ijebu is not the only one evading tax (allegedly ), does not mean every company and everybody in Nigeria should evade tax.

Baba Ijebu's account has no effect whatsoever on the value of the dollar in the parallel market. Baba Ijebu does his business in naira, he does does not sell dollars to the parallel market.

Not true... He is in partnership with other foreign betting company.. Most of those ridiculous odds are not his ..

Esseite:


READ THE ARTICLE...
The coys are allegedly evading tax remittance to the tune of N5bn to the Govt.

they read it,their brains are already wired negatively, tax evasion has nothing do with economic downturn and not a crime to them

wirinet:


I honestly doubt Baba Ijebu is evading tax, it might all be a witch hunt. I believe he who's hand are clean fears no evil. Bet9ja had suffered worse witch hunts from both the national assembly and EFCC, and they have always come out unscathed. Kunle Soname (who is a personal friend) leaves no stone unturned to make sure he complies with the law.

almost all the gaming companies in Nigeria has been short-changing the Govt of its 20% profits,which has ran into billions and Baba ijebu is the biggest of the thieves,they collide with DG of national lottery regulatory commission,pay few millions into govt account and share the rest untill the new executive secretary of national lottery trust fund couldn't take it and burst the bubble by reporting the efcc,alot of the game houses have started returning money's through back door.we talking billions here