The Central Bank of Nigerian has issued guidelines for the disposal of Non-Permissible Income (NPI) for Non-Interest Financial Institutions (NIFI).
This is according to a circular dated October 13, 2021, addressed to all non-interest financial institutions and signed by the Director, Financial Policy and Regulation Department, Chibuzo Efobi.
According to the circular, “Non-Permissible Income is any income that accrues to an institution in a Shari’ah non- compliant manner, such as interest income, penalties for delayed payment of debt obligations, or any income declared by the ACE of the institution as impermissible according to the Shari’ah.”
The guideline partly reads; “The following guideline is issued to guide the ACE of Non-Interest Banks (NIB) in supervising and monitoring the disposal of NPI by the institutions.
•NPI is not an object of ownership of the NIB and does not confer any ownership rights on it.
The NPI shall be put in a dedicated NPI account and shall not be commingled with the funds of the NIB.
•The NIB is under obligation to dispose of any NPI that accrues to it.
Disposing the NPI to a charitable cause is regarded as proper disposal of the NPI on the following conditions:
•The NIB does not stand to benefit from the charitable cause in any way, even if by goodwill.
•The charitable cause does not give benefit to any shareholder, director, ACE member or management staff of the NIB. •The disposal to the charity shall not be constituted nor included as part of the Corporate Social Responsibility of the NIB.