CBN to refund capital deposits, licensing fees of pending BDC applicants

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has announced that it will commence the immediate refund of capital deposits and licensing fees to BDC promoters with pending license applications.

The apex bank disclosed this in a circular with the reference number: FPRIDIRIPUBICIR/001/019 issued on Thursday, noting that the capital deposits and licensing fees amount to N35 million and N1 million, respectively.

The circular was signed by the Director, Financial Policy and Regulation department, Ibrahim Tukur.

The circular read, “Further to the Monetary Policy Committee briefing of July 27 2021 the Central Bank of Nigeria will commence the immediate refund of capital deposits and licensing fees (where applicable) to promoters who have pending Bureau de Change license applications with the CBN.”

In line with the announcement, the CBN instructed the promoters as follows: “Such BDC promoters should forward their requests for the refund in writing to the Director Financial Policy and Regulation Department Central Bank of Nigeria, Abuja.”

It added that the request should be accompanied with certain documents such as the “Telex copy of the capital deposit of N35 million, account details for the refund which should be the same as the account from which the capital deposit originated including the: Bank name, Account name, Account number” and a “copy of the bank draft/telex for payment of licensing fee of M1 million (if any)”.

“Hardcopy of the request in ‘1’ above should be submitted to CBN Head Office Central Business District, Abuja or CBN Head Office Annex Tinubu Square Lagos in an envelope clearly marked “Refund of BDC Capital Deposit” at its top left corner.

“Softcopy of the request in 1 above may be sent in advance of the herd copy to fenlicensing@cbn.gov.ng,” the bank further instructed.

It, therefore, directed all Deposit Monetary Banks to henceforth desist for accepting instructions from customers to transfer capital deposit to designated CBN accounts for the purpose of applying for BDC licensing.