Th e federal government has urged the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to enforce the use of Bank Verifi cation Number, BVN, in Microfi nance Banks, amid suspicions that fraudulent government employees have set up “ghost workers” accounts in MFBs to avoid detection.
Th e Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, in a correspondence to the Governor of the CBN, Godwin Emefi ele, said the introduction of the BVN has immensely improved the integrity of the federal government payroll, from which more than 50,000 ghost workers had been detected. Mrs. Adeosun however said operating bank accounts in MFBs without requirement for BVN has left a huge loophole for those who hide and launder proceeds of crime to escape detection by law enforcement agencies.
“Our ongoing eff orts to verify the integrity of Federal Government personnel costs and purge the system of fraud and error has made extensive use of the Bank Verifi cation Number as a means of identifying recipients of multiple salaries, and salaries paid into accounts with names that diff er from those held on our payroll records. Th e success of this eff ort has to date yielded the removal of over 50,000 payroll entries,” the Minister said. Mrs. Adeosun told the CBN governor that prior to the deadline for obtaining the BVN by bank customers, a large number of salary accounts of Federal employees were found to have been moved from commercial banks to microfi nance banks, which did not require the use of BVN. “Th is is a suspicious activity, and we have already commenced a review of such cases to identify and investigate any cases of fraud,” the Minister said. Although the minister said extending the requirement for BVN to microfi nance banks may impose a huge fi nancial strain on the smaller microfi nance banks, the Minister pointed out that “some MFBs, such as National Police Force Microfi nance, NPF, have over 27,000 salary accounts.
Our inability to perform checks on such a large number of salary earners is a key risk.” “I am therefore seeking your co-operation to enforce compliance with BVN on any MFB with over 200 active salary accounts, or those above a certain size. Th is will support the Federal Government’s eff orts at reducing leakages to create headroom for the capital projects that will support the growth of the economy,” the Minister said. Th e CBN had earlier announced its intention to extend the requirement for the extension of the BVN to MFBs in September 2016 but has delayed the measure.
