From Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
House of Representatives, yesterday, commenced investigation into the over N1.2 trillion unclaimed funds in commercial banks.
Deputy Speaker, Idris Wase, while declaring open the investigative hearing organised by the House Ad-hoc Committee on Recovery of Unclaimed Funds in Nigerian Commercial Banks and Infractions by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), said the probe is in line with the mandate of the parliament to expose corruption or waste in the country.
Wase said the investigation would help unearth the truth about the unclaimed funds and come up “with interventions that would improve and mitigate the situation.”
He said the N1.2 trillion unclaimed funds which were not paid into consolidated revenue funds of the government could have been used to “improve the infrastructure deficit and other challenges in our nation.”
Chairman of the investigative panel, Unyime Idem, in his opening remarks, said the objective of the committee was to recover hanging funds currently in the hands of unauthorised persons and corporate bodies in the country.
Idem noted that the probe has become imperative, especially against the backdrop of budget deficits in the country in recent times.
“This exercise we are embarking upon has become compellingly imperative as our budget deficit in Nigeria continues to grow viz-a-viz the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in recent years. It has exceeded the three per cent benchmark in the last three years. The highest was in 2021 at 3.67 percent while that of 2020 was 3.03 percent.
“These deficits are being financed by domestic and foreign loans which are no longer sustainable as the debts are mounting in the face of our dwindling resources and on the other hand, our nation is faced with multi-faceted challenges ranging from insecurity, high rate of unemployment and hyper-inflation to mention just a few.”
The lawmaker added that the panel would focus on the identification of the critical stakeholders in the issue of unclaimed funds in Nigerian commercial banks and the infractions by the CBN also on the specific roles of the CBN, the commercial banks, and the ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) of the Federal Government on the issue of unclaimed funds etc among others.