by Bosun Awoniyi
LAGOS, Oct. 23 (Xinhua) -- The Nigerian government is ready to freeze all accounts not covered by Bank Verification Numbers (BVN) in a move to curb money laundering activities.
BVN is a unique identification number that can be verified and used to transact business across all the banking platforms in Nigeria.
A Federal High Court in Abuja, Nigeria's capital city, ordered the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the 19 commercial banks in the country to disclose all accounts in their custody and the balances in such accounts.
The court ordered the banks to disclose the details of all such accounts, their owners and their proceeds in their affidavit of compliance deposed to by their Chief Compliance Officers.
It also made an interim order directing the banks to freeze all the said accounts by stopping all outward payments, operations or transactions pending the hearing of the substantive application seeking the forfeiture of the balances in the accounts to the government.
In addition, the banks were directed to disclose any investments made with funds from these accounts without BVN in any products.
Some of the banks had indicated their interest to comply if there was no court ruling negating the order within the time stipulated for compliance.
A spokesman for Unity Bank Plc, Matthew Obiazikwor, said the bank had frozen bank accounts without the BVN and would publish the names of the affected customers as soon as the bank was in possession of the court order.
Guaranty Trust Bank Plc, Heritage Bank, and UBA bank have all indicated they they would comply.
A presidential aide, Okoi Obono-Obla, said 46 million accounts in various banks were not linked to BVN. This, in his view, is an act of corruption, which the apex bank has been directed to stop.
According to him, these accounts have not been operated for a long time, noting that some of these accounts belong to state agencies, some of them of the board of parastatals of the federal government of Nigeria.
These accounts contain billions of naira, he added.
In the same vein, Uche Uwaleke, a banking and finance expert, said compliance with the court order would help check fraudulent practices, including money laundering.
He said operating an account without BVN violated the "know your customer" directive by the CBN as well as the money laundering Act.
It would also help expose questionable sources of wealth such as ones from crimes like kidnapping and theft of public funds, Uwaleke said.
"It will boost the government's fight against corruption, improve the country's image and promote investor confidence in Nigeria," he added.
Meanwhile, company secretaries and legal teams of 19 Deposit Money Banks in the country will hold an emergency meeting on Tuesday to fashion out modalities to comply with the court order.
In May, Nigerian lawmakers passed a bill aimed at cracking down on money laundering by urging foreign countries where currency crooks are hiding to cooperate in prosecuting them.
According to the bill, Nigeria may ask any country where a money launderer is hiding to help it prosecute the offender, or prosecute that person itself.
