The House of Representatives Monday began investigations into the N1.2 trillion unclaimed funds of the Federal Government stashed in commercial banks in the country with the aim of recovering the money and addressing borrowings to fund annual budgets of the government.
This was as the House Ad-hoc Committee on Unclaimed Funds in Nigerian Commercial Banks and the Infractions of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) was inaugurated by the Deputy Speaker Hon Idris Wase.
Chairman of the House Ad-hoc Committee on Unclaimed Funds, Hon.Uniyme Idem, at the inauguration attended by commercial banks and relevant government agencies, warned that there would be sanctions for individuals and corporate entities that do not cooperate with the investigation.
Idem demanded from all the banks, the submission of relevant documents that would help recover unclaimed funds in about 45 million accounts reportedly not to link to Bank Verification Number (BVN).
He threatened that commercial banks and other agencies withholding funds and not showing cooperation by refunding would be stopped from collecting revenue for the government.
“I think this House would not have a choice but to stop you from collecting funds on behalf of the Federal Government if you don’t show cooperation. But if you do it would be a win-win where we look at your books and then you check the one that belongs to the FG and refund it appropriately. There would not be any issue,” he said.
He said the banks would start appearing before the committee with their submissions from February 15 and urged total cooperation from them and relevant government agencies during the investigation.
Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon Femi Gbajabiamila, expressed hope that the committee’s assignment would improve the system in terms of value addition.
The Accountant General of the Federation, Mr.Ahmed Idris in his remarks said there was a good likelihood that a substantial amount of Federal Government funds might still be lying with commercial banks despite a presidential directive of 2015, and the circulars and efforts made to compel the commercial banks to comply with those directives.
The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Hajia Zainab Ahmed, also said over the past several years there have been circulars of government seeking to enforce this.
