The House of Representatives approved on second reading a bill to increase jail time for bankers who violate the asset declaration law.
Section 1 of the Bank Employees Law establishes that “Every employee of a Bank must, within fourteen days after the entry into force of this Law, make a complete declaration of all his assets.
“In the case of a new employee, he must, within fourteen days of having assumed his duties at the Bank, make a complete declaration of all his assets at the time of assuming his duties; and for the purposes of this subsection, a transfer or secondment from one Bank to another will be treated as a new job.
The bill, sponsored by Francis Waive (PDP, Delta), was debated on Wednesday and went to second reading.
Mr. Waive’s bill is intended to amend sections 5 and 7(2) of the Bank Employees Act.
The amendment to Section 7(2) of the bill seeks to increase the punishment for failing to declare assets: from 10 years’ imprisonment in the main Act to 20 years.
“Any employee guilty of an offense under subsection (1) of this section shall be sentenced to a term of imprisonment of twenty years and, in addition, shall forfeit excess assets or their equivalent in money to the Federal Government,” it said.
In addition, the section 5 amendment proposes to mandate CEOs to provide movement of workers in the banking sector within 12 months.
“The Executive Director of each bank must once a year, but no later than January 7, submit to the competent authority a list of all employees who joined or left the bank’s employment in the immediately preceding six months that expire. on December 31 of the procedure. year,” it reads.
Debate
Waive said the proposed amendment will provide data to monitor employee movement to stop fraud perpetrated by bankers.
He noted that section 5 seeks to ensure that bank employees can be fully accounted for at any time.
“It is no longer news that computer fraud that includes the hacking of people’s accounts is part of the majority of fraud perpetrated in our country in recent times and has been constantly increasing.
“It is also true that most of the online frauds that are carried out are perpetuated with bank personnel as collaborators. And in some cases involving personnel who are no longer at the service of the Bank”, he said.
Uzoma Abonta (PDP, Abia), speaking in favor of the bill, said that directors should also be classified as employees of the bank.
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“Bank directors, for these purposes, should be interpreted as bank employees. We see directors evaluating unsecured loans.
“Bank owners, anyone connected with the bank should be attenuated to be an employee of the bank so that the bank directors are not richer than the owners of the deposits.
“If you look at it, for example, most of the banks that went bankrupt, the directors will just form another bank and then move on and then NDIC will give people N500,000,” he said.
Ahmed Gagdi (PDP, Plateau), also contributed to the discussion. He said that banks in Nigeria are frustrating customers.
Speaking against the bill, Robert Tyough said that the 20 years proposed by the bill “is too long for a fraud case and the annual declaration of assets is too tedious.”
The bill was referred to the Banking and Currency Committee after President Femi Gbajabiamila put it to a vote.