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EFCC’s Advisory Saves Foreign Investors
Over $12B
Newsdiaryonline Sun May 15,2011
(In pix above :Yves Driot, M'hamed
Cherif, Amb. Usman Baraya,
Nigeria's Ambassador to Belgium,
Mohamed Ibn Chambas,
former ECOWAS Gen. Sec., Mrs
Farida Waziri, EFCC Chairman,
Mr. Scott Mitchell
and Dotun Ajayi of Africa
Business Roundtable, all invited speakers at the
4th United Nations Conference on
the Least Developed Countries
which ended weekend in
Istanbul, Turkey)
A total of
three million advisory mails sent to potential foreign investors
by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC has saved
them from losing over $12 billion to fraudsters in less than two
years.
Chairman of
the anti-graft agency, Mrs Farida Waziri disclosed this while
addressing a private sector track session at the United Nations
Conference on the Least Developed Countries which came to a
close in Istanbul , Turkey , weekend.
Speaking on
“Anti-Corruption And The Challenge Of Increasing Capital Flow To
Africa: Reforms, Result And The Road Ahead”, the EFCC boss
enumerated the various strategic steps that have been taken by
the Nigerian government through the anti-graft agency to check
corruption and make the country safe for foreign investments and
investors alike.
Some of the
reforms that have been successfully carried out in Nigeria’s
anti-graft campaign in the last three years, she said include:
creating a transactions clearance platform, TCP to interface
with offshore investors and entities, sustained sensitization
and public awareness campaigns, capacity building for operatives
and judicial officers, partnership with microsoft against
internet scam, recovery and return of proceeds of advance fee
fraud crimes, intense prosecution and conviction of corrupt
public officers as well as sanitization of the banking sector
among others.
While
explaining some of the results of the various initiatives,
Waziri said the TCP she created some 18 months ago had helped
tremendously to boost foreign investors confidence in the
Nigerian business environment.
According to
her, “we have created the Transactions Clearance Platform (TCP).
The TCP which can be accessed at our website,www.efccnigeria.org,
is designed to do basic due diligence for anyone who gets a
business proposal from Nigeria . The TCP will confirm the
authenticity of the business, the individuals behind the
business and the track record of the business. It will not
confirm the profitability or otherwise of a business or indeed
help in procuring license and approvals. In the past 18 months
after its existence, it has processed over 17,000 requests.
Using sophisticated tools of detecting potential cybercrime, it
has also sent advisory mails to over 3 million foreigners that
would have been defrauded of billions of dollars in proposed
transactions worth over $12 billion dollars. From the
foreground, it is obvious that the EFCC has remained a major
anti- corruption agency in Nigeria that has earned the
confidence and applause of the international
community in Nigeria ’s fight against corruption.”
To further
assure the gathering that Nigeria is now safe for foreign
investments, Waziri also said, “the Commission’s concerted
efforts and collaboration with other regulatory agencies
in sanitizing the banking sector and the stock market have not
only gained more points for Nigeria in the Transparency
International’s global corruption perception index, but have
yielded a whopping sum from debtors of the non-serviced
loans facilities across the troubled banks. This in effect has
boosted the local and international confidence in the county’s
financial sector with Nigerians in Diaspora yearning to
return with viable investment profile. This is indeed a step in
the right direction.”She further stated that,”the Commission
recognizes the need to adopt adequate measures to further
forestall irregularities that may undermine democratic
principles and practice which are all critical in the war
against corruption because it cannot address
the issue of corruption,
poverty and security without giving priority attention to good
leadership and management that would bring about transparency
and accountability in governance. This no
doubt prompted the EFCC
with the assistance of the donor agencies to vigorously drum up
support for enforcement of the anti- graft laws and
other regulations relating to transparency and accountability by
public officers to curb corruption in governance. This has led
to a measure of stability in the economic and political
landscape as a viable democratic culture evolves. This is
evident in the just concluded electoral process in the country.
The exercise is widely hailed as free and fair by both local and
international monitors and it is widely believed that the
process with will rekindle global confidence in Nigeria .
Terrorism
financing and money laundering are twin most deadly financial
crimes that have portrayed the country in bad light as
foreign investors would not have anything to do with Nigeria .
But with the active implementation of the Financial Action Task
Force (FATF) 40+9 and the passage of the
anti-terrorism law by the Nigeria government, that has changed.
Also, the Commission succeeded in breaking the link between tax
evasion and money laundering/ terrorist financing through
Project Eagle claw. Over $20 million US dollars has been
recovered to government coffers through this effort.”
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