KAZAURE, EMEFIELE, AND THE N89TRN STAMP DUTY SCANDAL

Nigerians learned last week that Mr. Godwin Emefiele, the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, had stolen the N89 trillion that had purportedly accrued to the federation.

The assertion made by Mr. Muhammed Kazaure, a member of the House of Representatives, caused some to wonder how such a sum could have been stolen through the banking system at a time when the Federal Government is dealing with a revenue crisis that jeopardizes the implementation of government programs.

But let's examine Kazuare's assertions. The senator from Jigawa claimed to be in possession of legitimate paperwork proving the existence of such funds under the CBN's custody.

According to Kazaure, there was a missing amount of N89.1 trillion that was supposed to have been deposited with the CBN from the N50 stamp duty and bank fees collected from every transaction worth more than N2,000 between 2017 and 2020.

He said that it was also found that the CBN was deducting an additional N100 from any transaction that over N5,000, with the money going into private accounts, and that the share between the central bank and the 27 commercial banks in the nation was 60:40.

He said that through the Nigerian Interbank Settlement System (NIBSS) and the Importers and Exporters (I&E) Window account on foreign exchange for the investors, the stamp duty collections made by the banks were transferred to a number of accounts.

Kazaure claimed that between April 2017, when the I&E Window account was launched, and April 2000, the accumulation from stamp duty and bank fees from FOREX trades came to almost $171 billion.

When Kazaure appeared on a Brekete family radio, he pushed his claims even further, saying that the CBN had conducted $171 billion worth of transactions on the Investors' & Exporters' Window (I&E FX Window), a market trading segment for investors, exporters, and end-users that allows for FX trades to be made at exchange rates determined based on current market circumstances.

In addition, he claimed that the CBN established the FMDQ Foreign Exchange Trading Market with the Lagos State Government as one of the investors, while the CBN held the majority of the Federal Government's shares and used it to extend loans to the Federal Government.

In addition, Godwin Emefiele, the governor of the top bank, was charged by Kazaure with failing to pay the Federal Government the stamp duty payments on all checks issued to the CBN for clearing between 1993 and 2012.

The lawmaker asserted that the information from the Nigerian Interbank Settlement System (NIBSS) for the full recovery of all stamp duty collections since 2013 was the basis for the invoice issued for the recovery of the revenue served on the Minister of Finance, Budget, and National Planning in 2021 and the CBN governor.

The congressman claimed that as a result of his strong friendship with President Muhammadu Buhari, he was successful in persuading him to consent to the formation of a Presidential committee to look into and find the nation's missing stamp duty payments.

In approving the committee's constitution, he claimed that the President granted him and the other members full authority to look into, detain, and make an arrest of anyone—including the CBN governor—who tries to obstruct the work of the committee, which is tasked with looking into, comparing, and recovering stamp duty revenues and bank charges collections from 2015 to the present.

He listed the seven members of the committee, which he had personally chosen, as Adekoya, the owner of the SBHR, as chairman; Zainab Ahmed, the minister of finance; Yusuf Magaji Bichi, the director general of the State Security Service; Ambassador Emmanuel Okafor, a former deputy director general of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA); Muhammad Wakili (Singham), the commissioner of police; the chief justice of the federation, as judicial adviser.

However, given that there are numerous anti-corruption organizations established by the constitution to address issues of corruption and fraud, one may wonder why Kazaure was given such authority.

It is also stunning that the same Presidency that Kazaure claimed gave him the authority to form the committee that is looking into the CBN governor last week released a statement claiming that the committee's actions were unlawful.

Those familiar with the inner workings of the capital market window know that this is a foreign exchange trading platform established by the CBN for banks and other authorized dealers to buy or sell foreign exchange, in contrast to Kazaure's claims that funds in the I&E Window were available only for investors and not the Nigerian people.