The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC), have opened discussions on how to synergize their efforts for the purposes of ensuring that the nation’s banking industry is secured from fraudulent activities and by implication, stabilize the financial system.
The Executive Chairman of the EFCC, Mr. Ola Olukoyede, made this disclosure on Thursday when he hosted the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of NDIC, Bello Hassan, who led a management team of the Corporation on a courtesy visit to his office in Abuja.
Olukoyede linked banks’ past failures to economic and financial crimes and advised the NDIC management and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to keep closer watch on banks to avoid failure and its attendant unpleasant impacts on the economy.
He said: “There is a nexus between criminal activities and liquidation of banks. When they don’t play by the rules, you discover that ultimately the banks will be folded up and that’s always the problem and so you have a very critical role to play to avoid bank failure. We are ready to support you, we are ready to collaborate with you in any capacity to achieve this.”
The EFCC’s boss described the NDIC as a critical partner and key agent in the fight against economic and financial crimes, stressing that the Corporation has considerable strength to deepen and strengthen growth in the economy of the nation.
The anti-graft agency’s boss further said: “One of the key issues that I promised Nigerians is to use the instrumentality of anti-corruption to stimulate growth in the economy and when you look at that critically, you will discover that the financial industry is very critical in growing the economy and of course we all know that NDIC plays a major role.”
Olukoyede promised to strengthen the EFCC’s collaboration with the Corporation since the two agencies have wider areas of relevance to the development of the nation.
He assured: “I am aware of the relationship between NDIC and the EFCC. We will strengthen and deepen it in the overall interest of our nation.”
Earlier in his opening remarks, the NDIC boss congratulated Olukoyede on his appointment and expressed confidence in his efforts towards repositioning the EFCC in the fight against economic and financial crimes.
Hassan said: “We believe you have all it takes to move this Commission forward in the fight against economic and financial crimes, which will go a long way in helping Mr. President achieve his agenda of ‘Renewed Hope’ for Nigerians.
“The mandate of NDIC includes bank supervision, liquidation of licensed deposit -taking institutions.
“In addition to that, NDIC has the mandate to root out those responsible for failure of those institutions to account and that is why we recognize EFCC as one of our critical stakeholders in the journey towards the attainment of our objective”, he added.
On the purpose of the visit to the management of the EFCC, the NDIC chief explained that the whole objective “is to see how we can deepen the collaboration that existed between NDIC and the EFCC. Like I have said, EFCC has assisted us greatly in what we are doing. In 2022, the EFCC graciously agreed to establish a desk for us in Abuja as well as Lagos.”
He appealed that recoveries made by the EFCC for the NDIC should be directly returned to the Corporation and not into government’s covers.
However, Olukoyede explained that courts usually determine the destination of recoveries and advised that the Corporation “can always apply to the government for any recovery if it is not paid directly into its account.”
