Recall that Access Bank, after receiving a directive from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) blocked accounts of eight protesters who took part in the #EndSARS protest.

Surprisingly, Access Bank had gone ahead to freeze the accounts even before CBN approached the court for an order to freeze 20 accounts of #EndSARS protesters across various banks. The bank included; Zenith Bank, First Bank, and GTBank.

This line of action by Access Bank generated in a nationwide online protest, with some customers taking to social media platforms to publicly announce that they would be closing down their Access Bank accounts while suggesting others to do same in unity.

In the same vein, Gatefield Nigeria is demanding a total amount of N100 million as damages done by the restriction of its account. 

Based on this development, Access Bank investors are pushed to the edge, as their confidence dropped within the period of protest against the bank.

While defending its action, Access bank maintained that it can’t ignore or go against a directive from its regulator. However, Stanbic IBTC’s stance against the CBN directive negated Access Bank’s excuse.

Access bank overboard action has resulted in a fall in Access Bank’s share price. Unmask NG learnt that its Bank’s share price slumped from the N10 per share

to N9.15 kobo .

Similarly, Access Bank’s stock price declined further, as it opened trading with N9.15 kobo on Monday, only to close the market with a significant fall to NGN8.70 kobo.

At the time of publishing this report, Access Bank’s shares are down again by -3.45%, currently, with a loss of NGN0.3 kobo off the NGN8.70 kobo the lender opened the market with.

It is however pertinent to know that Access Bank may have gone beyond the line to ensure that such actions of a peaceful protest are disrupted by placing a Post-No-Credit (PCN) on account of activists who have been participating in the protest.

With this line of action taken by Access bank, old and potential investors and customers may no longer have trust in the financial institution.

The post Panic For Access Bank Investors As Customers Begin Closing Of Accounts appeared first on Business News in Nigeria.

While the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) secured court approval to restrict the protesters’ accounts, the protesters can now appeal against the court ruling.

“To freeze forthwith all transactions on the under-listed 20 accounts on the list annexed to this application as Exhibit A and all other bank accounts of the defendants/respondents for a period of 180 days pending the outcome of investigation and inquiry currently being conducted by the Central Bank of Nigeria,” the CBN request to freeze the protesters’ bank accounts read.

The request was however granted by the presiding judge, A.R. Mohammed, on Wednesday, November 4, 2020, but the judge gave a 90 days period, which means that with presentation of a good cause after the expiration of the 90 days, the court can renew the restriction period.

But, the affected individuals and company can now appeal against the court ruling.

The document signed by the judge partly read: “It is however directed that the 90 days freezing order when it lapsed, may be renewed upon good cause shown by the applicant.

“It is also directed that any person, whether artificial or natural, that is affected by this order may apply to the court to have his grievance or complain heard by the court.”

Meanwhile, Access Bank had been sued for a sum of N100 million over the freezing of the account of Gatefield Nigeria, due to the company’s involvement in #EndSARS.

According to Gatefield Nigeria, Access Bank had restricted its account since Thursday, October 15, 2020, based on the directive of the CBN.

The post What #EndSARS Protesters Need To Do To Retrieve Their Frozen Accounts appeared first on Business News in Nigeria.

The banks including Guaranty Trust Bank (GTBank), Zenith Bank, United Bank for Africa (UBA), First Bank, Access Bank, amongst others, were debited N917.5 billion by the CBN in the week ended Friday, October 23, 2020.

According to CBN regulation, in line with the Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR), Nigerian banks are expected to leave a total of 27.5% of customers’ money for CBN to deduct.

How Much CBN Deducted From Banks

Unmask NG learnt that customers’ funds worth N55 billion was deducted from GTBank by the CBN, N285 billion was deducted from Zenith Bank, N160 billion was debited from UBA, NGN95 billion was taken from First Bank, while N140 billion from Access Bank was debited.

Other banks affected include; Polaris Bank which was debited N30 billion; Keystone was debited N30 billion; Standard Chartered N24 billion; Fidelity N15 billion; Ecobank N11 billion; FCMB N11 billion; Wema Bank N10 billion; Stanbic Bank N10 billion; Coronation Bank N10 billion.

 Sterling Bank N8 billion, Citi Bank N6 billion, Union Bank N5 billion, Rand MB N5 billion, Providus Bank N5 billion, Fsdh N1.5 billion, and Nova Bank N1 billion. All totaling N 917.5 billion.

Meanwhile, between the Zenith Bank, UBA, GTBank, First Bank, and Access Bank – all of which are known as FUGAZ – CBN debited a combined N1.9 trillion in the second quarter of April to June 2020. With the latest deduction, CBN has now debited customers’ funds worth N6.57 trillion.

What you should know

CRR involves reducing the amount of money available to banks to lend further reducing their profitability. By debiting banks for failing to meet CRR targets, the CBN is effectively denying banks of the ability to earn an income in customers’ deposits.

The apex bank under the leadership of Governor Godwin Emefiele has deployed several heterodox policies as it strives to stimulate the economy and manage the exchange rate crisis in the absence of strong fiscal support. This policy has placed banks in cross chairs with the apex bank exposing them to CRR debit, should in case they cannot use customers’ deposits to spur local production and lending. it is important to know that the amount which CBN has been debiting as CRR is the cash owned by customers.

The post GTBank, UBA, Others Aide CBN’s Restriction On #EndSARS Protesters’ Accounts appeared first on Business News in Nigeria.