That Court Ruling On BVN

Against the backdrop of failure to fully implement the Biometric Verification Number policy of the banking sector, Justice Nnamdi Dimgba of the Federal High Court in Abuja last week, granted a request by Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, for a temporary forfeiture of all funds held in bank accounts not linked to BVNs.
Also to be forfeited are funds in accounts whose ownership could not be identified. The latter are accounts without sufficient know-your-customer credentials.
The order which followed an originating motion of notice filed by  Malami on behalf of the Federal Government on September 28, granted all the nine reliefs sought by  Malami, represented by a lawyer, Usman Dakas, on October 17.
The court ordered all the 19 deposit money banks (DMBs), operating in the country to release to the Federal Government names of accounts not yet connected to BVN; account numbers; their outstanding balances; domiciling locations and domiciliary accounts without BVN and where they are domiciled.
The court also ordered all of them to disclose any investments made with funds, and to withhold authorisation for any outward inflow of funds from the accounts.
All the details are to be submitted to Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) and the CBN for authentication, while the banks were also directed to publish all bank accounts not linked to BVN in national newspapers with a 14-day notice for individuals with interest in such accounts to come forward and justify why their funds should not be forfeited to the Federal Government. CBN, which was joined as 20th respondent alongside the 19 DMBs, was also directed to appoint an official who will examine all the details submitted to the apex bank for compliance.
The government argued the matter under Section 3 of the Money Laundering Act. The section says banks must “ensure that documents, data or information collected under the customer due diligence process is kept up-to-date and relevant by undertaking reviews of existing records, particularly for higher risk categories of customers or business relationships.”
The Tide endorses the decision of the High Court. The CBN disclosure that only 20.8 million customers enrolled 40 million bank accounts, leaving about 46 million accounts yet to be verified eight months after the final deadline for customers within and outside Nigeria to enroll, is condemnable and demands some measure of compulsion.
We recall that the BVN was introduced by the ex-President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration in 2014 and deadline issued for compliance shifted twice to consolidate the anti-corruption matrix and as an enabler for the future development of digital banking.
This measure, we believe, is not only critical to the future of financial services but to the evolution of fintech and improved regulatory oversight over funds movement in the economy. It would also empower quality service founded on actual accounts in a corruption-free environment.
The Tide frowns at the soft approach to the enforcement of the BVN policy occasioned by the CBN’s inability to demand from deposit money banks, detailed explanation on low rate of sign-on and to create remedial course as part of its regulatory function. And more importantly,  the CBN needs to assert its position as an anti-corruption facilitator within existing rules and laws.
Over the last three years, we have seen how the biometric verification exercise has aided fiscal house cleaning, exposing ghost workers and helped the trio of government, depositors and banks provide better understanding of fund flow in the country.
We believe that if the effort government is making to unmask dubious Nigerians and their foreign collaborators is strictly followed through strict BVN enrollment, several millions and billions of public funds will be recovered.
It is hoped that capital flight and corruption through illicit arms dealing, drug trafficking, smuggling, cyber crimes and others will be exposed and dealt with sooner or later if the BVN policy is implemented with the dexterity it deserves.
We, therefore, urge the authorities not to leave any stone unturned to ensure the full implemenation of the BVN policy to stamp out corruption in the nation’s economy.
What Nigeria needs now is to build positive national and international image devoid of corruption that will attract the confidence of investors to boost her economy.