The House of Representatives on Wednesday resolved to probe into unclaimed funds in Nigerian commercial banks.
To drive the process, the House of Representatives has set up an ad-hoc committee chaired by Unyime Idem (PDP- Akwa Ibom) to investigate “the suspicious” unclaimed funds trapped in the banks, including advanced payments by the government for contracts.
The House mandated the committee to also investigate the unremitted funds collected on behalf of agencies and departments of the Federal Government by commercial banks and, to also look into what they termed “infractions by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)” against the provisions of Nigerian laws.
These resolutions were sequel to the adoption of a motion sponsored by Dachung Bagos from Plateau State at plenary.
Moving the motion, Bagos noted that the bank verification number (BVN) was introduced by the CBN in 2014 as a way of combating money laundering, illicit financing, and duplicitous ownership of bank accounts used for fraud.
He said: “About seven years after the introduction of the BVN into the Nigerian banking system, about 45.85 million bank accounts across Nigeria are yet to be linked to BVNs as data released by the Nigerian Inter-Bank Settlement Systems (NIBSS) on June 23, 2021, showed that the total number of bank accounts in Nigeria as of May 2019 is 122.071 million and the active accounts as of May 2020 stood at 72.936 million.”
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The lawmaker said financial experts have held the position that there exist suspicious bank deposits after Nigeria adopted the BVN running into trillions of naira left unclaimed in many commercial banks because their owners failed to register a BVN or link to existing ones where appropriate.
“Aware that the commercial banks have adamantly disobeyed and continue to hold on to the monies out of failed transactions more than necessary, against the directives of the CBN and to the detriment of Nigerians.
“Worried that despite the introduction by the CBN of the bank verification number to curb the menace in the financial sector, about 71 million customers still use their accounts without the compulsory identification, per data from the Nigerian Inter-Bank Settlement Systems.
“Concerned that the lack of legal regulatory framework and political will to deal with the unclaimed assets, especially funds abandoned in commercial banks will continue to put Nigeria behind many countries in the world that have developed the legal framework to deal with these assets.
“Also worried that the recent disclosure about the funds collected by commercial banks on behalf of some ministries, departments, and agencies of the Federal Government to the tune of N1.2 trillion, in revenues they generated but failed to remit to the Federation’s account since 2016, as required by law.
“We’re also concerned that some commercial banks have refused to remit fees and levies collected on behalf of government agencies in the last 10 years.
“Also disturbed that the CBN, has not been transparent in the implementation of its intervention programmes and projects, and have shown an almost zero level of accountability and transparency before the National Assembly in respect of funds generated both locally and internationally,” the lawmaker contended.
