The United Kingdom High Commission in Nigeria has said it will comply with all directives from the Federal Government, including the guidelines rolled out by the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit to curb money laundering and terrorism financing, which also applied to embassies. The Director and Chief Executive Officer, NFIU, Modibbo Tukur, had on Thursday announced the prohibition of cash withdrawals from accounts belonging to the Federal Government, all its agencies, state and local governments with effect from March 1, 2023. Tukur also said the policy applied to all foreign missions operating in Nigeria; accounts of all development partner institutions and the accounts of all instituted funds in the form of independent funds to be operated as mutual funds such as insurance funds, cooperative funds, brokerage funds, political party funds, or pressure group/union funds, once the funds were designated to exist as funds or to operate independently for management and/or investment. He said, “The rate of withdrawals above the threshold from public accounts has been alarming, over N701bn has been withdrawn in cash from 2015 till date. “The NFIU had told banks and government agencies at all levels to go fully digital by moving online, as all transactions involving public money must be routed through the banks for the purpose of accountability and transparency. “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. As a consequence, any government official that withdraws even one naira cash from any public account from March 1 will be investigated and prosecuted in collaboration with relevant agencies like the EFCC, ICPC and the NPF.” The NFIU noted that the enforcement, guidelines and policies were for the mitigation of money laundering, terrorism financing, and proliferation of weapons, and prevention of predicate crimes. Responding to inquiries from one of our correspondents, the UK High Commission’s spokesman, Dean Hurlock, said, “I’m not aware (of the NFIU guidelines), but I’m sure the right team is. We will of course comply with all Federal Government directives.” The missions of the United States, Canada and China have yet to respond to emails asking if they would comply with the NFIU guidelines as of the time of filing this report. Some former diplomats have, however, faulted the directive, stating that the agency has no authority over foreign diplomatic missions in the country. The foreign policy experts, who spoke in separate interviews with our correspondents on Friday, wondered how the NFIU would compel the missions to comply with its directive considering that they represented their home governments, aside the fact that they had diplomatic immunity. But speaking to Sunday PUNCH, a former Nigerian Ambassador to Mexico, Ogbole Amedu-Ode, said the NFIU policy was subject to local regulations only Amedu-Ode explained, “First of all, what is the law establishing NFIU and what latitude, in terms of legal enforcement of rules and regulations, do they have? And if they have such rules, do they cover diplomatic missions operating in Nigeria? “Of course, the person and the premise of a diplomatic agent are invaluable and I want to stress that it (directive) covers their bank accounts and all that, but it is subject to local regulations. “Can they categorise accounts belonging to foreign diplomatic missions and accounts belonging to Nigeria public institutions? However, does the NFIU have the legal authority to monitor what is going on in diplomatic missions and their bank accounts in Nigeria?” In the same vein, retired Ambassador Rasheed Akinkuolie said foreign missions could not be restrained, noting that diplomatic immunity for diplomats and missions was a mutually agreed convention. Akinkuolie stated, “Diplomatic missions in Nigeria fall under ‘Exceptions to the Guidelines’ in the NFIU cash withdrawal policy. Foreign missions cannot be restrained in any way in their legitimate activities in a host country, including their financial transactions. “If there is insistence on applying the stringent regulations by the Nigerian government, the same restrictions will be placed on all Nigerian diplomatic missions abroad. Diplomatic immunity for diplomats and missions is a mutually agreed convention, which countries are careful not to violate because of the consequences.” Corroborating the ex-diplomats, a former Nigerian Ambassador to Angola, Folorunsho Otukoya, noted that embassy accounts were not regarded as local, making it impossible for the NFIU policy to be enforced on the missions. Otukoya noted, “Whatever the specifics of the guidelines may contain, embassy accounts are not regarded as local. Since remittances come into them directly from their sending states, it may be difficult to strictly impose those guidelines to the letter. “From my experience in other lands, central banks have often prevented embassies from paying local currencies into their accounts once they withdraw the forex equivalent. This is to prevent what we call ‘double tripping’. “It is to prevent missions from taking out forex and going to the black market and coming back to deposit into their accounts to do local expenses. It’s an elaborate system but most missions still find ways of circumventing those provisions.” However, an ex-Nigerian Ambassador to Algeria, Ambassador Mohammed Mabdul, said as long as foreign missions were operating in a country, the law of the current country would apply to them and was in line with international best practices. According to him, the policy on money laundering applies to all foreign missions in Nigeria, stressing that the policy was being enforced in most countries. Mabdul, who retired from the Foreign Service last year after his tenure in Algeria, argued, “Even though the foreign embassies represent their home countries, the moment they are posted to another country, they are governed by the laws of the country. That is the standard procedure, especially when such laws do not contravene international best practices. “There are certain financial regulations that are practised, not only in the local banks, but by all the banks around the world. Most financial institutions operate to protect transactions of money in a legal way and to avoid illegal activity, which includes