THE Ad Hoc Committee of the House of Representatives on unclaimed funds in Nigerian commercial banks and infractions by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has begun an investigation into funds stuck in commercial banks due to the alleged failure to link the account holding the funds to a Bank Verification Number (BVN) and the Federal Government’s Treasury Single Account policy.
The committee is looking into the over 45 million accounts that are reported to be holding funds worth over N1.2 billion.
On January 26, 2022, the House passed a resolution establishing a committee to investigate “suspicious and unclaimed funds” held in various accounts.
The committee was also mandated by the House to look into unremitted payments collected by banks on behalf of federal ministries, departments, and agencies.
They were also charged by the House to investigate “many violations by the Central Bank of Nigeria against the requirements of the enabling Act and Laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the good people of Nigeria, particularly in the field of intervention projects and programs.”
Also the committee is expected to come back in eight weeks with recommendations for additional legislative action.
These resolutions were made based on a motion by Dachung Bagos, titled ‘Need to Investigate Unclaimed Funds in Nigerian Commercial Banks and the Infractions by the Central Bank of Nigeria,’ which the lawmakers unanimously adopted.
The committee was officially launched on Monday, with representatives from many federal ministries, departments, and organizations, as well as banks, in attendance.
The committee’s Chairman, Unyime Idem, after representatives of the MDAs spoke said: “For commercial banks, our resolution specifies that you submit documents that would assist us recover unclaimed funds in around 45 million accounts that are not linked to the BVN,”
“About 45 million accounts are what the House has been able to discover through the recent reports that are not linked to BVN.
“So, money in those accounts, we want to know the positions, whether you have refunded the FG or what happened to the funds. You are going to give us documents to back these investigations.”
According to Idem, the committee’s assignment is “enormous, crucial and sensitive, given what the country is facing economically.”
He said, “We believe that the outcome of it (probe) would help the country to recover a very substantial part of the unclaimed funds that have been hanging in some of the Nigerian commercial banks and other unauthorized hands.”
