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House invites CBN Governor over BVN verification for BDC transactions

By on October 30, 2015

The House of Representatives at the plenary on Wednesday passed a resolution to invite the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Godwin Emefiele, over the directive requiring Bank Verification Number (BVN) for transactions with Bureau De-Change (BDC) operators.

The House also advised the CBN to consider less demanding operational guidelines for foreign exchange transactions as businesses of BDCs are being hampered by multiple regulations.

Following a motion under matter of urgent public importance by Hon. Danburam Abubakar Nuhu, the House, presided over by Deputy Speaker, Hon. Yussuff Sulaimon Lasun referred the matter to its Committee on Banking and Currency for further legislative action.

Nuhu, in his presentation, acknowledged the effort of the CBN to stabilise the foreign exchange market by making it compulsory for all BDC to have the Bank Verification Number of all customers.

“To date, 2,765 BDCs have been approved by the CBN. All customers desiring foreign exchange through any channel would be forced to give their BVN to those with whom they are doing transaction. The attempt to use the BVN to stem money laundering will lead to the proliferation of the BVNs of Nigerians. This will make vital financial information of Nigerians easily accessible to dubious people,” he said.

“In this era of internet fraud, this will endanger our peoples’ hard earned money and cause even more problems than it was meant to solve,” Nuhu said.

The House also directed its committee on telecommunications to probe the expenditure of the N6.1billion appropriated for the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) for the SIM registration exercise in 2012.

The committee would also probe the agency and GSM providers over the failure to comply with the directive to deactivate unregistered Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) cards on their Networks.

The resolution of the House followed a motion sponsored by Hon. Oluwole Oke (Osun PDP) who cited the NCC’s December 2014 discovery that about 45 per cent of registered SIM cards on the mobile network were invalid due to non-registration or improper registration.

“18.6 million numbers due to MTN, 7.4 million numbers are due to Airtel, 2.33 million numbers are due to Glo and 9.46 million numbers due to Etisalat,” Oke said.

The implication, he explained, is that the providers have selectively complied with the directive of the NCC, thereby compromising the cardinal objective for the introduction of the exercise.

He accused MTN with the largest number, of corporate arrogance, for refusing to comply with the directive.

“MTN has not denied that the regulator had not variously served the telecommunication companies similar directives at the same time. While the others seem to have complied, MTN blatantly refused, driven by pecuniary profit consideration at the expense of our collective security has ignored the directive leading to the imposition of fine,” Oke said.

“If the issue of fine imposition and the alleged decision of MTN to negotiate with NCC is made the primary concern, with the link to our collective security, then the parliament would be abdicating its primary responsibility”,

Oke added that the work of security agencies may be hampered by the non-deactivation of lines, which are in bulk in the possession of criminals.
This condition may worsen and prevent the achievement of the deadline to tackle insurgency and other forms of insecurity in Nigeria, Oke warned.

In his contribution, the Minority Leader, Hon. Leo Ogor sought an amendment to investigate the N6.1 billion budgeted for the sim registration project by the NCC.
The committee is expected to submit its report in three weeks.

The House equally called for the restoration of power supply to communities at the Seme border area of Badagry, Lagos, where the residents have been without power supply for the last six years.

The plight of the residents was brought to the attention of the House by Hon. Bamgbose Joseph (Lagos APC) who decried the development in such a critical area to national economy

“The Seme Border has been in complete blackout for about six years now, a situation that has led to an upsurge in criminal activities, particularly smuggling and a decline in economic ventures with attendant hardship on residents” he said.
He added that restoration of power supply to the communities would assist security agencies to confront smugglers and improve revenue collected from the border.

The House referred the matter to its  Committee on Power, and directed the National Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) to ensure that the Eko Electricity Distribution restores power to the area.

Meanwhile, it also mandated its committee on Works to liaise with the Federal Ministry of Works to ensure the speedy completion of the Owerri- Port Harcourt Express Road.

Hon. Chike Okafor (Imo APC) in a motion recalled that a contract valued at N23.1 billion was awarded in 2009 by the Federal Executive Council for the rehabilitation of the road.

 

[ThisDay]