TheCable

The United Bank of Africa (UBA) has denied withholding any money against the federal government’s treasury single account (TSA) policy.

The bank said this while reacting to the court directive asking seven commercial banks, including UBA, to remit $793.2 million allegedly withheld.

In a statement issued on Friday by Bola Atta, group head, marketing & corporate communications, UBA, said none of such funds is currently in its book.

It also referred to a statement earlier issued by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) confirming that it had remitted “all outstanding NNPC/NLNG deposits in its possession to NNPC’s Treasury Single Account (TSA) at the CBN.”

“Our attention has been drawn to the order of the federal high court in Lagos directing seven (7) commercial banks, including UBA Plc, (to) temporarily remit a total of $793,200,000 allegedly hidden in contravention of the federal government’s treasury single account policy pending the determination of the suit filed by the attorney general of the federation on behalf of the federal government,” the statement read.

“We wish to state categorically that UBA has fully remitted all NNPC/NLNG dollar deposits since August 24, 2016.

“We hereby emphasise that none of such funds is currently in the bank’s books. Our action was further corroborated by a clearance memo published by CBN on its website on same date.

“We would like to thank all our customers, business partners and other stakeholders who have reached out to us on account of this judgement.”

UBA had earlier issued a statement where it also said it had paid the federal government all the money due and that the CBN had cleared it.

A federal high court in Lagos had granted an interim order for the remittance of a total of $793,200,000 allegedly hidden by the banks in violation of the constitution and the TSA policy.

The listed  banks are Skye Bank Plc, First Bank Plc, Keystone Bank Plc, Diamond Bank Plc, Sterling Bank Plc and Fidelity Bank Plc.