The Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, has strongly solicited the cooperation of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), in extending the requirement for Bank Verification Number (BVN) to account holders in Microfinance Banks (MFBs), to facilitate the detection of bank accounts that might have been opened and operated in such banks for ghost workers by fraudulent syndicates.

According to a statement issuedon Mondayin Abuja by the Ministry of Finance, signed by Director (Information) Salisu Na’inna Dambatta, the Minister whosoughtthecooperationof the CBN in that regardin a letter addressed to the CBN Governor, said that the introduction of the BVN by the apex bank has contributed immensely in improving theintegrity of the Federal Government payrollon whichmore than 50, 000 ghost workers were detected and removed.

Adeosun stated that operating bank accounts in Microfinance Banks without requirement for BVN has left a huge loophole, which individuals intent on financial crimes could use to hide and launder proceeds of crime and successfullyescape detection by law enforcement agencies.

“Our ongoing effort to verify the integrity of Federal Government personnel costs and purge the system of fraud and error has made extensive use of the BVN as a means of identifying recipients of multiple salaries, and salaries paid into accountswith names that differ to those held on our payroll records. The success of this effort has to date yielded the removal of over 50,000 payroll entries,” the Minister emphasised.

She referredthe CBN Governor to the discovery that, prior to the deadline for obtaining the BVN, the movement of a large number of salary accounts of federal employees from commercial banks to Microfinance Banks, was observed.

“This is a suspicious activity and we have already commenced a review of such cases to identify and investigate any cases of fraud,” the Minister explained.

While noting that extending the requirement to Microfinance Banks may put a huge financial strain on the smaller Microfinance Banks,the Minister pointed out that“some MFBs such as the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) Microfinance 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 anyMFB with over 200 active salary accounts or those above a certain size. This will support the Federal Government’s efforts at reducing leakages to create headroom for the capital projects that will support the growth of the economy,” the Minister said in the correspondence.

News Express recalled that the CBN had in September in 2016 announced its intention to extend the requirement for the extension of the Bank Verification Number to MFBs in the country,but the exercise has yet to take off.