The Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit, NFIU, has fixed March 1, 2023, as the deadline for the stoppage of all cash withdrawals from accounts owned by the federal, state, and local governments.
The Chief Executive Officer of NFIU, Moddibo Tukur, made this disclosure on Thursday in Abuja.
Tukur said federal, state and local governments withdrew over N1 trillion in cash from 2015-2022.
He stated that state governments withdrew a whooping N701.54 billion in cash between 2015 and 2022, while the Federal Government withdrew N225.72 billion, and the local governments made N156.76 billion in cash withdrawals in the period under review.
“This is not reversible as we are only enforcing the law. As far as we are concerned, Nigeria will become a full non-cash economy by March 1, 2023. Consequently, any government official withdrawing even one naira cash from any public account from March 1 will be investigated and prosecuted in collaboration with relevant agencies like EFCC, ICPC and the NPF,” he said.