Fresh indication has emerged from the Managing Director of Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Hadiza Bala-Usman that upon joint efforts made by the agency and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), since she was appointed about a year ago, Heritage Bank has remained recalcitrant in transferring its fund to Treasury Single Account (TSA).
Giving more details on the issue recently, NPA boss said “it was observed that the revenue collected by Heritage Bank in the sum of $24,370,061 was not being swept to CBN in line with the TSA policy”.
“This was revenue collection made between September 2015 and July 2016. Upon discovery of the failure of Heritage Bank to sweep funds to CBN, the authority suspended the bank from further revenue collections.
Continuing, she noted that “Spirited efforts had been made through the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation to get the money back but only $4 million has been paid so far. Following several letters and a series of meetings with the CBN to mandate Heritage Bank to pay these funds, the CBN had in January indicated that it will guarantee the funds but we are yet to receive confirmation”.
“As at today, the authority has an outstanding refund of $21 million with Heritage Bank. We have expressed our dissatisfaction and frustration to the CBN and the OAGF over the non-remittance and have sought for sanctioning of the bank.
On other success story, Bala-Usman revealed that concerning the First City Monument Bank (FCMB), “The funds involved were Cargo Tracking Notes in the sum of €6,606,016.07 domiciled in FCMB”.
“At the time the new management came in, the fund was still in the commercial bank as against the directive of the Federal Government to transfer all funds to TSA. On assumption of office, we sought for necessary approval from relevant authorities and pursued it and ensured that a euro denominated bank account was approved for the funds to be transferred into CBN,” NPA managing director, Bala-Usman disclosed in Lagos.
