The House of Representatives of the Nigerian legislature has raised alarm over the unclaimed funds amounting to N1.2 trillion sitting in 45 million bank accounts without Bank Verification Number(BVN).

Its newly constituted Ad Hoc Committee on Unclaimed Funds has swung into action to investigate the suspicious and unclaimed funds in the bank accounts unlinked with BVN.

Investors King recalls that on February 14, 2014, the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN introduced Bank Verification Number, a centralized biometric identification system for the banking industry to curb money laundering, illicit financing and other fraudulent acts relating to bank accounts. 

After over seven years, 45 million accounts are still without the compulsory BVN which has hindered access into the accounts by its owners.

The inauguration of the committee on Monday had in attendance banks, ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) of the Federal Government.

The unclaimed funds probe is to run for eight weeks after which the committee would submit a detailed report to the House for further legislative action.

The committee is to also look into the unremitted funds collected by banks on behalf of ministries, departments and agencies(MDAs) of the Federal Government as well as infractions by the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN in the area of intervention projects and programmes.

The Deputy Speaker of the House, Ahmed Wase, stated that the N1.2 trillion has not been paid into the Consolidated Revenue Fund hence the probe as the funds are needed for deficits to tackle the economic challenges in the country. 

The motion moved by Rep. Dachung Bagos titled– ‘Need to Investigate Unclaimed Funds in Nigerian Commercial Banks and the Infractions by the Central Bank of Nigeria,’ was unanimously taken and resolutions followed resulting in the immediate probe.

Data by the Nigerian Inter-Bank Settlement Systems on June 23, 2021 indicated that about 45.85 million bank accounts across Nigeria are yet to be linked to BVNs and the total number of bank accounts in Nigeria, as of May 2019, was 122.071 million and the active accounts, as of May, 2020 was 72.936 million, Bagos disclosed.

Unyime Idem, Chairman of the committee while addressing the invited banks representatives stated that they should submit documents that would aid the recovery of the unclaimed funds.

“About 45 million accounts are what the House has been able to discover through the recent reports. Those accounts 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.”

The Committee Chairman noted that the responsibility given to the committee is crucial and sensitive, especially at a time that the country needs more funds. 

“We believe that the outcome of the 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.

“Money meant for the Federal Government is not supposed to sit with unauthorized hands for a very long time. Any money that was disbursed or meant for the Federation Account, if the contract has failed or was not executed, the proper thing is for the money to be refunded to the same source it came from,” Idem said.