By Dipo Olowookere
Over N140 billion has been recovered by the Senate from indicted banks and firms as a result of an investigation into the alleged loss of N30 trillion from Nigeria’s import and export value chain.
In a report submitted on Wednesday by Chairman of the Senate Joint Committee on Customs, Excise and Tariffs; and Marine Transport, Mr Samuel Anyanwu, it was said that while the indicted banks returned N128 billion to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the affected companies paid N12 billion into government’s purse.
The Senate had set up the committee after a lawmaker moved a motion titled ‘Urgent Need to Examine the Operations of the Nigeria Customs Service Revenue Drive’ on November 15, 2016.
The joint panel looked into ways to block leakages and irregularities in the sector and come up with recommendations that will reinvigorate the revenue of the Nigeria Customs Service.
Mr Anyanwu said during their assignment, 32 leakage channels were identified as the major sources of revenue losses in the import and export business.
He explained that these violations affect the economic profile of the country and place extensive pressure on the nation’s scarce foreign exchange.
“It also negates all Central Bank of Nigeria initiated foreign exchange management plans. This is because a distorted forex requirement does not essentially reflect the actual forex needs of individuals and businesses in the country.
“This situation benefits only the purveyors of capital flight from the country and adds absolutely no value to the nation,” the lawmaker said.
Speaking further, the Senator noted that, “As a result of this exercise, some collection banks have made additional remittances to the Central Bank of Nigeria to the tune of N128 billion and evidence of payment and receipt has been received by the committee.
“From the selected 60 companies, over N12 billion payments have been made to the government voluntarily by the companies based on their internal self-audit after receiving documented evidence of their culpability from our committee.
“It is instructive to note that despite all the payments so far made, none of the approved collection banks or the selected companies has fully cleared the established liabilities against them,” the committee said in its report presented to the Senate on Wednesday.
However, Mr Anyanwu urged his colleagues to give his committee eight more weeks to carry out its holistic investigations, arguing that the banks and companies currently under investigation represented less than one percent of the entire import and export value chain.
