Economy
TSA: Court Orders Skye Bank, UBA, 5 Others to Remit $793m to FG
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
Seven banks operating in Nigeria have been directed by a Federal High Court sitting in Lagos to remit about $793.2 million allegedly hidden by them in violation of the Federal Government’s Treasury Single Account (TSA) policy.
The affected lenders include Skye Bank, United Bank for Africa (UBA), Diamond Bank, First Bank Nigeria Limited, Fidelity Bank, Keystone Bank Limited, and Sterling Bank.
In his ruling yesterday, Justice Chuka Obiozor ordered the banks to remit the various amounts into the designated Federal Government’s Asset Recovery dollars account domiciled with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
According to court documents filed by counsel to the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Mr Yemi Akinseye-George, “a total of $367.4 million was illegally hidden by three government agencies in UBA, while a sum of $41 million was illegally kept in a NAPIMS fixed deposit account with Skye Bank.”
The documents indicated that “$277.9 million was hidden in Diamond Bank; $18.9 million in First Bank; $24.5 million in Fidelity Bank; $17 million in Keystone Bank; and $46.5 million in Sterling Bank.”
A lawyer from Mr Akinseye-George’s law firm, Mr Vincent Adodo, who deposed to a 15-paragraph affidavit in support of an ex parte application filed by the AGF, stated that “seven banks colluded with federal government officials to hide the funds in breach of the government’s TSA policy.”
“The funds were revenues, donations, transfers, refunds, grants, taxes, fees, dues, tariffs etc accruable to the Federal Government from different ministries, departments, parastatals and agencies,” said Mr Adodo.
Mr Adodo said the banks had failed to remit the funds to the TSA domiciled in the CBN in violation of the guidelines issued by the Accountant General of the Federation which fixed September 15, 2015 as the deadline for such funds to be moved.
The 1st to 7th respondents (banks), he said, “in collaboration with and/or collusion with unknown officials of the Federal Government, conspired to disobey the relevant constitutional provisions, thereby depriving the Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria of funds belonging to it, which are needed urgently to fund pressing national projects under the 2017 budget.”
Among the allegedly culpable government agencies is the National Petroleum Development Company.
Moving the ex-parte application on Thursday, Mr George said “it would best serve the interest of justice for Justice Obiozor to order the banks to remit the funds to the Federal Government, to prevent the funds from being moved or dissipated.
“The withheld funds are urgently required for the implementation of the 2017 budget. The budget has a lifespan of 12 months and we are already in the middle of the year. By hiding these funds, the Federal Government is being forced to borrow money from these commercial banks at exorbitant interest rate,” Mr Akinseye-George added.
After listening to the counsel, Justice Obiozor granted the interim orders.
He directed that the order should be published in a national daily newspaper.
He, subsequently, adjourned till August 8, 2017, for anyone interested in the funds to appear before him to show cause why the interim orders should not be made permanent.
‘We are not guilty’
In a swift response to the judge’s decision, Fidelity Bank Plc denied holding any wrongdoing.
Mr Charles Aigbe, the Divisional Head, Brand and Communications at the bank, said since the commencement of the TSA policy, all TSA related accounts held by the bank were fully disclosed to the authorities.
“We do not have any TSA related account with a balance of $24.5m in Fidelity Bank which has not been remitted to the authorities,” Mr Aigbe said in a statement.
“This matter is coming to us as a surprise. We are therefore reaching out to the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation to ascertain which account or parastatal they are referring to with a view to carrying out a detailed reconciliation,” he added.
Also, UBA’s Group Head, Marketing & Corporate Communications, Bola Atta, in a statement on Friday afternoon, said her bank “has fully remitted all NNPC/NLNG dollar deposits since August 24, 2016.”
“We hereby emphasise that none of such funds are currently in the Bank’s books. Our action was further corroborated by a clearance memo published by CBN on its website on same date (http://www.cbn.gov.ng/Out/2016/CCD/UBAPress%20Statement240816.pdf).
“We would like to thank all our customers, business partners and other stakeholders who have reached out to us on account of this judgement,” she said.
Additional information from Premium Times
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) is seeking a reduction in import duty exemptions, which rose to N34 trillion, limiting its ability to increase its revenue generation threshold.
The Comptroller-General of the Customs Service, Mr Adewale Adeniyi, disclosed that the value of import duty exemption certificate approvals increased to that level in 2025, describing the policy as one of the major factors restricting its revenue generation.
At an investigative session of the Senate Committee on Finance with revenue-generating agencies in Abuja on Monday, Mr Adeniyi explained that government fiscal policies have continued to impact the revenue-generating capacity of the Customs Service, both positively and negatively.
“The NCS would have generated significantly higher revenue over the years if not for government-approved import duty waivers and other external factors affecting collections,” he said.
He added that the Import Duty Exemption Certificate scheme, introduced in March 2020, accounted for about N34 trillion in approvals in 2025, with nearly 60 per cent covering duty-free importation of military hardware due to Nigeria’s prevailing security challenges.
Other government-backed duty waivers, he noted, covered the importation of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG), electric and hybrid vehicles, healthcare equipment and medical supplies, industrial machinery and manufacturing inputs, as well as food import intervention programmes.
While acknowledging the impact of the waivers on Customs revenue, Mr Adeniyi argued that fiscal policy should not be assessed solely on the basis of revenue generation but also on its broader economic and social objectives.
He, however, urged the federal government to establish stronger monitoring mechanisms to ensure beneficiaries of duty waivers deliver the intended economic outcomes, including lower consumer prices, increased local production and improved healthcare access.
The committee also expressed displeasure over the absence of several heads of government agencies invited to the hearing, including the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), Industrial Training Fund (ITF), and the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Jabi.
The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance, Mr Sani Musa, warned that the affected chief executives must appear at the committee’s next sitting or face severe sanctions under the Senate’s rules.
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By Adedapo Adesanya
The NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange rose by 0.40 per cent on Monday, July 13, buoyed by buying interest in 11 Plc, Central Securities Clearing System (CSCS) Plc and UBN Property Plc, which offset the profit-taking in Food Concepts Plc, the parent company of Chicken Republic.
11 Plc gained N20.69 to end at N227.64 per share compared with last Friday’s price of N206.95 per share, CSCS Plc grew by N1.83 to N91.48 per unit from N89.65 per unit, and UBN Property Plc added 1 Kobo to sell at N1.81 per share versus N1.80 per share.
On the flip side, Food Concepts Plc depreciated by 24 Kobo to close at N2.45 per unit, in contrast to the preceding session’s N2.69 per unit.
As a result, the market capitalisation increased by N9.2 billion to N2.587 trillion from N2.578 trillion, and the NASD Security Index (NSI) improved by 15.33 points to 4,311.67 points from 4,296.34 points.
Yesterday, the volume of securities traded by investors surged by 615.9 per cent to 9.1 million units from the previous 1.3 million units, and the value of securities rose by 997.1 per cent to N320.4 million from the preceding session’s N29.2 million, while the number of deals decreased by 12.5 per cent to 28 deals from last Friday’s 32 deals.
At the close of trades, Great Nigeria Insurance (GNI) Plc remained the most active stock by value on a year-to-date basis, with 3.4 billion units valued at N8.4 billion, followed by Infrastructure Credit Guarantee (Infracredit) Plc with 2.3 billion units worth N6.5 billion, and CSCS Plc with 73.9 million units exchanged for N5.2 billion.
GNI Plc also closed the session as the most traded stock by volume on a year-to-date basis, with 3.4 billion units sold for N8.4 billion, followed by Infracredit Plc with 2.3 billion units traded for N6.5 billion, and Resourcery Plc with 1.1 billion units transacted for N415.7 million.
