By Gift Chapi Odekina
The House of Representatives Ad-Hoc Committee on the recovery of N1.2 trillion unclaimed funds in commercial banks, Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) as well as Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has disclosed that it has so far discovered over 300Nbillion trapped in dormant bank accounts in domestic and foreign currencies, accounts without BVN, failed contracts, excess unremitted funds and more.
Chairman of the Committee, Unyime Idem (PDP, Akwa Ibom) disclosed this after a session with Citi Bank and officials of the Nigeria Investment Promotion Council (NIPC) on Wednesday.
Idem disclosed that since the Committee began investigation after it was mandated by the House on January 26th 2022, it has so far discovered over N300 billion hanging in Commercial Banks, MDAs and other places.
He further said that the management team of Citi Bank was owing a total of N99 billion out of the N1.2 trillion being owed federal government by about 500 entities which include Commercial Banks, MDAs and others.
He presented a list of accounts which he said were holding such funds in Citi Bank which he said officials of the bank need to explain.
Members of the committee who made observations specifically aske the officials to explain the status of accounts belonging to ABS Ltd, Global Offshore Ltd and Titan Energy Ltd which they said were holding funds in both Naira and Dollars.
However, the Executive Director, Operations and Technology of the Bank, Ngozi Omoke-Enyi said that, the letter sent by the Committtee which was specific on what was required had been complied with.
She disclosed that, they have submitted seven (7) accounts to the committee which were accounts without Bank Verification Number (BVN).
However, the Committee insisted that, based on the documents submitted by the bank, they extracted more than seven accounts which need to be scrutinised.
After the deliberations, the Citi Bank officials were told to reconcile their accounts and appear again for clarifications.
On the other hand, the Committee while addressing officials of Nigeria Investment Promotion Council (NIPC) disclosed that, according to their records, the Council.is owing the federal government N5.2 billion in unremitted revenue, operating surplus and other funds from 2015 to 2021.
The Director Finance NIPC, James Akwa who appeared before the Committee sought an extension of time to reconcile their accounts
He informed the Committee that, they made only two remittances as stated by the Committee due to the issues they had since 2016.
The Committee therefore granted the NIPC one week to reconcile and reappear before it next Wednesday.
