The House of Representatives Ad-hoc Committee on unclaimed funds in Nigerian commercial banks and infractions by the Central Bank of Nigeria has directed the CBN to furnish it with details of 45 million bank accounts that are not linked with the Bank Verification Number (BVN).

Chairman of the committee, Rep Unyime Idem, who gave the directive during the inauguration of the committee at the National Assembly yesterday, said the move was to assist the committee to unearth and recover all federal government’s funds trapped in commercial banks.

Recall that the House of rep had earlier noted that seven years after the introduction of the BVN into Nigeria banking system, about 45.85 million bank accounts across Nigeria are yet to be linked to BVNs as data released by the Nigerian Inter–Bank Settlement Systems (NIBSS) on June 23, 2021, disclosed that the total number of bank accounts in Nigeria as of May 2019 is pegged at 122.071 million and the active accounts as of May, 2020 stood at 72.936 million.

Idem said the committee will, among others, probe the level of compliance with the Treasury Single Account (TSA) policy by the MDAs since its commencement in December 2015.

Idem charged all concerned commercial banks and other relevant organisations to cooperate with the committee or face sanctions.

He said the exercise became imperative in view of the need for the country to generate more money to fund its budget deficits which are now being serviced through domestic and foreign loans which he said are no longer sustainable.

He said the committee will also review long outstanding Advance Payment Guarantees (APGs) issued on federal government projects, and monies held because of failed and unexecuted contracts.