In what appeared to be a final warning addressed to the bankers, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) gave the top bankers till the ending of June 2021 to comply, even as the initial deadline of Monday, June 14, has passed.

“The truth is that this law has been in place for over 35 years, but it was hardly ever enforced and so these bankers would just declare anything or not declare at all. However, the EFCC is now demanding the declaration forms as part of moves to sanitise the system.

“To this effect, the chairman has written a reminder to the banks, asking all top executives to comply latest by the end of June,” an investigator who spoke on the matter was quoted as saying.

What you should know

According to the Bank Employees, ETC (Declaration of Assets) Act 1986, bankers should declare their assets through the appropriate authority like the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation. But the forms were hardly ever scrutinised, a trend which the EFCC seeks to change.

Section 1 of the Act states, “Every employee of a bank shall, within fourteen days of the commencement of this Act, make a full disclosure of all his assets.

“In the case of a new employee, he shall within 14 days of assuming duty with the bank make a full disclosure of all his assets at the time of his assuming duty; and for the purpose of this subsection, a transfer or secondment from one bank to another shall be treated as a new employment.”

Section 2 of the Act reads, “The full disclosure of assets required under Section 1 of this Act shall be made in the manner prescribed in the Declaration of Assets Form contained in Form A of the Schedule to this Act and shall be executed before and attested to by the Registrar of a High Court, the Court of Appeal or the Supreme Court.

“The President or the appropriate authority may from time to time prescribe such other forms as may be necessary to achieve the purpose and intendment of this Act.”

The Act in Section 5 states that the Chief Executive of every bank “shall twice in every year, but not later than 7 January, or 7 July, as the case may be, submit to the appropriate authority a list of all employees who joined or left the employment of the bank in the immediately preceding six months expiring respectively on 31 December of the previous year and 30 June of that year respectively.”

The Act explained that “Chief Executive” meant the chairman, the managing director or other similar officer of a bank, including the Central Bank of Nigeria.

Likewise, the Act defined “employee” or “employee of a bank” to include the governor (of the CBN), the chairman and members of the board, managing director, director, general manager, manager, examiner, inspector, controller, agent, supervisor, officer, clerk, cashier, messenger, cleaner, driver, and any other category of workers of the Central Bank, a bank or other financial institutions.

Defaulters of the act

Access Bank has 16 board members, UBA has 15, Sterling Bank and EcoBank have 13 members each, while First Bank of Nigeria (FBN), Guaranty Trust Bank (GTB), and Fidelity Bank have 12 members each as contained on their official websites.

Others are Zenith Bank, 11; Wema Bank, 11; Union Bank 11; First City Monument Bank, 9; and Unity Bank, 8.

The post Access Bank, UBA, Other Banks’ Executives Risk 10 Years Imprisonment, Here’s Why appeared first on Business News in Nigeria.

In a series of tweets on Tuesday, February 2, 2021, the UBA victim explained how he got a N1 million that went missing from his UBA account.

Odogwu said the Nigerian Navy deposited the N1 million into his UBA bank account after he lost his mother.

“I had Over 1 Million naira in my account which was given to me by @NigerianNavy after I lost my mom. I had kept that money as savings and had used part of it for my upkeep,” he revealed.

But surprisingly to him, on Tuesday, January 12, he woke up to a debit alert of N500,000.

And as if that was the only surprise he would have on that day, while he was on his way to a UBA branch to make complaint, Odogwu got another debit alert of N500,000. According to him, that was how the N1 million disappeared from his bank account.

Unsuccessful steps taken to retrieve his money

Odogwu explained that he has made series of steps to ensure that the money return to his bank account, but sadly, all his efforts have not yield any positive result.

Parts of his tweets read: “I had never experienced such a thing, and I know for large sums of money. OTPs or Tokens were requested. I got to the @UBAGroup Akowonjo branch and was mad and furiated narrating what had happened. Now at this point I had told the Customer Care Rep on the phone to freeze my Account. While at the branch I filled a Charge Back form, which had been had the two debits of 1,000,000 (One million naira) and I was told at the branch that it’ll be a “50/50” thing and he couldn’t give me assurity.

“Now I was told by the CCR that the first N500,000 was withdrawn from my acct, on a Sunday, which I didn’t get an alert until Tuesday, Jan 2021, and the second on that Tuesday. The following day I got a reversal of N500,000 and had waited for the other reversal.

“I had been contacting the @UBAGroup customer care number, severally furiated over the reversal of the other money. I was also told by the CCR that “whoever perpetrated the crime, would have his account flagged and BVN locked and can’t or wouldn’t be able to make transactions” which gave me some kind of hope. Now since the 13th, January, 2021 when I got the first reversal I haven’t gotten the other.

“I had even called @sportybetng customer care line, to notify them of this happening. I was told to communicate it to my bank, and that my bank @UBAGroup should communicate the issue to them, but @UBAGroup told me they had been liaison with @paystack being the platform the money went to, to @SportyBet & SportyPay.

“While I was at the bank, I was questioned if I had shared my bank details with anyone. I said no! I was also asked if I bet. I also said no!. They asked if I engage in online transaction, I told them Yes! When I used my @investbamboo app. The CCR said maybe I had kept my card carelessly. I told him for christsake I’m not a child who doesn’t know how to protect my Debit card.

“I have been to the bank more than three times and yet no reversal of the remaining NGN 500,000 and it’s almost a month. I keep getting annoying DMs from them saying they’re “investigating” the issue. I was told via DM I would get a report on the 26th January, 2021…”

UBA’s insensitivity to its customers

It is an open secret that trust is the most valued currency in the banking sector. As a whole, banking is fundamentally an industry of trust.

But sadly, with Odogwu’s experience, UBA has been exposed to be a bank that customers can’t trust with their monies.

The post Customer Loses Trust In UBA After N1m Disappeared From His Account appeared first on Business News in Nigeria.

The other financial institutions are –Zenith, Fidelity, FCMB, UBA, and Heritage banks.

While disclosing this during a recently-held interview, Festus Keyamo, the Minister of State for Labour and Employment, said beneficiaries of the programme will only be paid only through their bank accounts using their Bank Verification Numbers (BVN) to avoid fraud and double payment.

Keyamo further revealed that the enlisted banks have successfully opened special accounts and captured the biometrics of successful applicants for the job.

“The clear directive of Mr. President to me was that to ensure a fraud-free process, we should ensure that there is a clear audit trail of all payments made to all beneficiaries and as such, we needed to engage selected banks who can share data with us and we needed to open special accountants for all participants in such a way that there will be an audit trail of all payments made through these selected banks,” he explained.

What you should know

The programme was established under the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) by SWP, to identify and exploit employment opportunities that abound in the public works sector by organizing the skilled, semi-skilled, and unskilled persons that are unemployed to carry out utility, environmental, infrastructural development and sanitation works.

Under the programme, artisans (beneficiaries), will do public works for three months for N20,000 per month.

The 774,000 jobs which were scheduled to take off on Sunday, November 1, 2020, after been shifted from Thursday, October 1, 2020, will now kick-off, will now kick-off on Tuesday, January 5, 2020.

Announcing the new date of the programme, Festus Keyamo, the Minister of State for Labour and Employment, said: “We have taken a firm decision to begin on January 5, 2021, but I am going to make an official announcement after FEC on Wednesday. We had a few hiccups in December but we have taken a decision to begin January 5 which is a Tuesday.

“The programme will run from January to March 2021 which is a pure dry season. So, we are ready. All the obstacles have been removed.”

But here’s our sentiment…

If the SPW’s 774,000 jobs programme is the best way or option to tackle Nigeria’s alarming unemployment rate, then, the President Muhammadu Buhari-led government’s ineptitude to address the country’s lingering economic challenges has again been brought to fore.

Recall that about 21,764,614 (21.7 million) Nigerians remain unemployed, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

The post 774,000 Jobs: Access Bank, Others Enlisted For SPW appeared first on Business News in Nigeria.

While the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) secured court approval to restrict the protesters’ accounts, the protesters can now appeal against the court ruling.

“To freeze forthwith all transactions on the under-listed 20 accounts on the list annexed to this application as Exhibit A and all other bank accounts of the defendants/respondents for a period of 180 days pending the outcome of investigation and inquiry currently being conducted by the Central Bank of Nigeria,” the CBN request to freeze the protesters’ bank accounts read.

The request was however granted by the presiding judge, A.R. Mohammed, on Wednesday, November 4, 2020, but the judge gave a 90 days period, which means that with presentation of a good cause after the expiration of the 90 days, the court can renew the restriction period.

But, the affected individuals and company can now appeal against the court ruling.

The document signed by the judge partly read: “It is however directed that the 90 days freezing order when it lapsed, may be renewed upon good cause shown by the applicant.

“It is also directed that any person, whether artificial or natural, that is affected by this order may apply to the court to have his grievance or complain heard by the court.”

Meanwhile, Access Bank had been sued for a sum of N100 million over the freezing of the account of Gatefield Nigeria, due to the company’s involvement in #EndSARS.

According to Gatefield Nigeria, Access Bank had restricted its account since Thursday, October 15, 2020, based on the directive of the CBN.

The post What #EndSARS Protesters Need To Do To Retrieve Their Frozen Accounts appeared first on Business News in Nigeria.

The popular singer, according to one of his accusers, Karimot Odebode, got paid to perform at the tertiary institution but failed to show up despite pressure and plea.

Unmask NG learnt that the issue started when the students reached out to Brymo‘s Manager, Lanre Lawal to invite the artiste to perform.

According to Odebode, Lawal demanded a sum of N1 million from the students who were trying to create lasting memories for themselves.

“United Bank of Africa (UBA), agreed to buy a particular some of the tickets for students. A company gave us Bitcoin worth of 80k or thereabout. Lanre Lawal kept telling us to pay 200k upfront, and because the team was working day and night to make it happen. I and some people contributed the 200k as upfront,” her tweet read.

A major test was however fixed for the next day of the show, which threatened attendance to the concert. But as fate would have it for them, postponement of the show was important to them for the test’s preparation. Immediately another call was placed to Brymo’s management, but on reaching him, he told them that one of the team members had travelled to Portharcourt upon announcement of the postponement and he could not be recalled.

Having declined to make Brymo available for performance after being paid, the students started pushing for a refund, but surprisingly to them, all efforts to refund the money proved abortive.

The students have now petitioned the Economic Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to probe the singer over a fraud allegation.

The petition read: “The 2018 /2019 executives of the Samuel Ladoke Akintola hall of residence (called sports hall) Obafemi Awolowo University Ile Ife, Osun state hereby petition the management of Bail Entertainment Company of  No 38 Adeniyi Jones avenue Ikeja, Lagos and the manager of the artiste Olawale Oloforo( stage name Brymo) Mr lanre lawal for  refund of a sum of N200,000 which was paid as a part payment for a concert which was supposed to hold july 6,2018.”

Troubles for Brymo

This fraud allegation might have a negative effect on what the Brymo brand represents, as fans and brands might no longer fancy him due to ‘his questionable character’.

Meanwhile, as at the time of publishing this report, neither Brymo nor his manager has reacted to the fraud accusation.

The post Brymo Accused Of Not Showing Up For Performance After Being Paid appeared first on Business News in Nigeria.

The banks including Guaranty Trust Bank (GTBank), Zenith Bank, United Bank for Africa (UBA), First Bank, Access Bank, amongst others, were debited N917.5 billion by the CBN in the week ended Friday, October 23, 2020.

According to CBN regulation, in line with the Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR), Nigerian banks are expected to leave a total of 27.5% of customers’ money for CBN to deduct.

How Much CBN Deducted From Banks

Unmask NG learnt that customers’ funds worth N55 billion was deducted from GTBank by the CBN, N285 billion was deducted from Zenith Bank, N160 billion was debited from UBA, NGN95 billion was taken from First Bank, while N140 billion from Access Bank was debited.

Other banks affected include; Polaris Bank which was debited N30 billion; Keystone was debited N30 billion; Standard Chartered N24 billion; Fidelity N15 billion; Ecobank N11 billion; FCMB N11 billion; Wema Bank N10 billion; Stanbic Bank N10 billion; Coronation Bank N10 billion.

 Sterling Bank N8 billion, Citi Bank N6 billion, Union Bank N5 billion, Rand MB N5 billion, Providus Bank N5 billion, Fsdh N1.5 billion, and Nova Bank N1 billion. All totaling N 917.5 billion.

Meanwhile, between the Zenith Bank, UBA, GTBank, First Bank, and Access Bank – all of which are known as FUGAZ – CBN debited a combined N1.9 trillion in the second quarter of April to June 2020. With the latest deduction, CBN has now debited customers’ funds worth N6.57 trillion.

What you should know

CRR involves reducing the amount of money available to banks to lend further reducing their profitability. By debiting banks for failing to meet CRR targets, the CBN is effectively denying banks of the ability to earn an income in customers’ deposits.

The apex bank under the leadership of Governor Godwin Emefiele has deployed several heterodox policies as it strives to stimulate the economy and manage the exchange rate crisis in the absence of strong fiscal support. This policy has placed banks in cross chairs with the apex bank exposing them to CRR debit, should in case they cannot use customers’ deposits to spur local production and lending. it is important to know that the amount which CBN has been debiting as CRR is the cash owned by customers.

The post GTBank, UBA, Others Aide CBN’s Restriction On #EndSARS Protesters’ Accounts appeared first on Business News in Nigeria.

While speaking at a roundtable discussion made up of African leaders, including Dr. Ngozi Okonjo – Iweala, the Special Envoy of the African Union on Covid-19 and Tidjane Thiam who is also a Covid-19 Special Envoy responsible for mobilising international economic support for Africa, the renowned billionaire admitted that Africans can be empowered to become more productive and self-reliant, as the novel coronavirus presents an opportunity to reset the continent’s economy.

“I see this pandemic as an opportunity to reset Africa,” Elumelu stated.

Elumelu’s counsel 

While pointing out that Africa has all it takes to have a competitive economy, Elumelu advocated for a martial plan that will galvanise the entire continent and make it less dependent on the ‘circularity of debt’ from developed nations, which according to him, has been a major setback.

• Mobilization: Elumelu believes that to have a functional economy in Africa, Buhari and other leaders in the continent, needs to adopt the Tony Elumelu Foundation style of mobilising people. He explained that the mobilisation also includes putting resources together. His words; “I feel that as we engage the rest of the world in providing relief, we need to look for a more fundamental solution to Africa’s challenges. I have often argued for martial plan overtime. We need to mobilise everyone. If we have a martial plan that mobilises resources to address particular issues, then we can mitigate against this constant begging for assistance. The truth is that we have resources to help mobilise people. As the founder of the Tony Elumelu Foundation, we committed to endow $100m to support young African entrepreneurs and we have been seeing the positive results this has yielded so far.”
• Electricity: The billionaire expressed a belief that the best way to ensure the stability of the macro-economic environment, empower small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs), and fix youth migration, is a reliable power supply. He said, “it is evident that if we can fix access to electricity, then we are in for a better and more resilient economy. There is an urgent need to prioritise our youths and empower our SMEs. The people who work hard need to be encouraged.”

Here’s what we think

Unmask NG understands that poverty is one of the major problems African leaders have been battling. To combat this challenge and boost economic developments, Elumelu’s counsel cannot not be taken seriously. For instance, erratic power supply is a problem in Nigeria, crippling businesses, and the economy at large. And until this lingering challenge is addressed, the chances of having a functional economy will remain slim.

The post COVID-19: Elumelu Highlights Economy Recovery Plan For Buhari appeared first on Business News in Nigeria.