The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has promised financial reward for information on persons hoarding naira notes.
The Commission’s Chairman Abdulrasheed Bawa says the whistleblowers will be rewarded with five per cent of the funds recovered.
Recalls that CBN had on October 26, announced plans to redesign the naira, citing concerns of “illicit” funds in circulation, which it said bandits and kidnappers had been exploiting in perpetrating their crimes.
The redesign is for selected currency notes that include N200, N500 and N1,000.
The CBN had said it will be introducing the redesigned notes into the financial system on December 15, 2022, and has also given January 31, 2023 as the expiry date for legal tender of the notes.
Bawa hinted this in an interview with the Deutsche Welle Hausa Service on Wednesday.
According to him, “We are also calling on Nigerians and even non-Nigerians that all channels are accessible. If anyone knows someone who hid suspicious money, they should alert us and we will investigate it; when we investigate the money and get it, the whistleblower also gets five per cent.’’
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The EFCC Chairman also said the redesign of the naira was not politically motivated, noting that the move was targeted at returning hidden public funds to the banks.
Bawa noted that the government wants to force people who hid money at home to deposit them in bank accounts.
“There is no political motive behind this; some people siphoned and hid public funds and that is why we want them to bring them out.”
He explained that President Muhammadu Buhari gave the go ahead to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) having evaluated and accepted the idea.
“These public funds were embezzled and we want them to return them. We have not told anyone not to bring this money out. What the government said was to deposit the money into bank accounts, or else sanctions may follow,” he said.
Quoting legal provisions, the EFCC chairman stated that the redesigning of the naira is expected to be done after every eight years.
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“Nigeria has 20 years without redesigning, almost 80 per cent of the naira is not in the bank and the CBN, but rather in the hands of people. So how can the government succeed? How can a country get 25 per cent of foreign exchange which is a benefit from its currency in 10 days?”
The EFCC chairman noted that the naira redesign may crash the dollar to N200.
“Maybe with this, the dollar may crash completely to even N200, who knows?” he said.
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