The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has barred nine deposit money banks from all foreign exchange transactions and operations, for holding onto $2.334bn belonging to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and failing to remit it into the Treasury Single Account.

The affected banks are: United Bank for Africa (UBA) $530m; First Bank of Nigeria (FBN) $469m; Diamond Bank Plc ($287m); Sterling Bank Plc ($269m); Sky Bank Plc ($221m); Fidelity Bank ($209m); Keystone Bank ($139); First City Monument Bank (FCMB) $125m; and Heritage Bank ($85m).

CBN says all the banks will remain barred from foreign exchange operations until they fully remit the NNPC funds into government coffers via the Treasury Single Account.

In a swift reaction, UBA denied hoarding the funds.

Head, Corporate Communications, for the bank, Charles Aigbe said in a statement released after CBN’s announcement that UBA had submitted all the funds as requested by law.

Aigbe said: “Our attention has been drawn to report of the ban of UBA from the foreign exchange market by the CBN over the non-remittance of NNPC/NLNG dollar deposits.

“We wish to state very categorically that UBA has completely remitted all NNPC/NLNG dollar deposits.

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