ZENITH OF FRAUD!

 Zenith Bank Leads In Forex Scam

By Lanre Olaleye

Zenith Bank is leading the all time high of financial institutions encouraging the bleeding of the country of its much needed foreign exchange by unscrupulous bank customers.

This comes on the heels of the widening gap between black market and official market rate of foreign exchange. 

As at Tuesday, 29th March 2022, the dollar exchanged for N416 at the official market and N575 at the black market. This is a gap of over N159. Consequently, this huge gap has therefore created a market for bank customers to profit from.

The customers under the pretext of travelling abroad, apply for forex and buy at a cheap rate from banks and surreptitiously resell the dollar at the black market.

Disturbed by this trend, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in a circular issued in July 2021 had directed all banks to publish the identities of customers persons who engage in such behaviour and to restrict them from obtaining currency in the future. 

 In compliance with CBN directives, 10 Nigerian banks have revealed the names of customers buying cheap dollars to likely resell at the black market.

Checks on the websites of 10 commercial banks reveal that over 1,226 identities have been exposed thus far. 

Out of the 1,226 offenders, Zenith Bank listed 990 foreign exchange (FX) offenders as its customers while Polaris Bank and Sterling Bank listed 40 and 53, respectively. 

Access Bank on its website has 29, Fidelity Bank reported 83, First City Monument Bank had nine, Stanbic IBTC Bank reported 15, Standard Chartered Bank had four, United Bank for Africa had three, and Wema Bank has so far published just one name.

 Polaris Bank stated on its website that despite follow-ups with the 54 consumers, it did not reimburse the Personal Travel Allowance (PTA) sold to them while Sterling Bank also stated that its clients cancelled their trip but did not return the PTA provided to them despite repeated phone calls and texts. 

Six of the bank's customers also provided bogus visas or passports while applying for PTA, according to the bank. 

However, investigation revealed high level of corruption involving bank officials and customers is responsible for the high number of forex offenders recorded by Zenith Bank.

Sources at the bank say unscrupulous bank staffs are in the habit of colluding with customers to secure foreign exchange using fictitious documents.

"Once they are able to secure the foreign exchange for the customers, they arrange to sell the forex at the black market and share the difference at an agreed percentage. "They often cancel the foreign trip by citing fictitious excuses and that is why Zenith Bank has not been able to apprehend one forex offenders because it is an inside job.

"They operate a forex syndicate that rolls in money and they are taking advantage of the huge gap between the official exchange rate and the black market," revealed our source.

Attempts to get official response from the Media Relations Officer of Zenith Bank, Ayoola Kasunmu proved abortive as calls made to his phone numbers were unanswered even as text and Whatsapp messages were not responded to as at the time of filling this teport.