First Bank Queried By House of Reps

First Bank has been questioned by the House of Representatives over N94.345 billion in money collected on behalf of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS).

The House also questioned First Bank management on allegations of a N28.3 million breach of agreement on Cash on Transfer (CoT) charges.

During an investigative hearing on the audit queries made by the Office of the Auditor General for the Federation, Rep. Oluwole Oke, Chairman of the House Committee on Public Accounts, questioned management (oAuGF)

The legislator confirmed receipt of First Bank’s updated report relating to the additional sum of N9.4 million.

According to Oke, the Bank was asked to respond to an oAuGF audit question about the NCS being overcharged by banks in the area of CoT.

He claimed that presentations by representatives of various institutions, notably First Bank, were found to be in conflict with the NCS agreement.

According to the oAuGF’s inquiry, First previously charged 30k and other charges totaling N1.3 billion in an MoU, effectively boosting the commission to N1 from the original 30k.

The First Bank Executive Director, Mr. Shehu Aliyu, stated that the bank should collect 30k every N1,000 as mentioned in the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed by both sides.

He said that in addition to the 30k charge, there was another charge of 10k for Interswitch, adding that the Bank had during the last public hearing, informed the Committee of its plan to tender a new report to reflect the new 10k charge.

He said that over the period Jan to Dec. 2019, First Bank collected the sum of N94.3 billion on behalf of the NCS, adding that it charged a total of N28.3 million on 30k per N1,000.

He added that the net remittance on daily basis aggregated to N94.345 billion.