Heritage bank fears it will collapse if it remits NPA’s $21.3m with it, MD tells Reps

Officials of the Nigerian Ports Authority on Wednesday explained to the House of Reps ad hoc committee that Heritage Bank has refused to remit about $21.3 million belonging to the agency to the Treasury Single Account (TSA) on the excuse that withdrawal of such a huge amount of money will stress the bank.

NPA managing director, Hadiza Usman, who made this disclosure said that the money has been trapped in the bank’s vault since 2016 and that all efforts to get the bank to remit the money into the TSA had been unsuccessful.

She stated this when she appeared before the House of Reps ad hoc committee led by Mr. Danburam Abubakar-Nuhu. The committee is probing compliance with the TSA policy by government agencies.

According to Usman, series of interventions by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to retrieve the money had failed as Heritage Bank has continued to plead that “if such a huge withdrawal is allowed, it will have stress on the bank,” she said.

She added, “We wrote the CBN a number of letters and they promised to provide a guarantee. Up till date, they have not given us the guarantee.”

She also told the committee that there is another €6 million kept by First City Monument Bank for the NPA, which she said was suddenly seized by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

According to her, the bank was operating the account for the NPA on its cargo tracking services operations before EFCC seize the money.

She said, “The EFCC suddenly moved the €6m from FCMB to their own account; they just unilaterally swept the money.”

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Asked why the anti-graft agency seized the money, Usman said that EFCC failed to give any clear reason for its action.

She meanwhile said that it might be connected to investigations being carried out by the EFCC, which the NPA did not have the details of.

Subsequently, the committee summoned the acting chairman of the EFCC, Mr. Ibrahim Magu, to appear before it to explain why the money was confiscated.

The NPA boss was also interrogated on the relationship between the NPA and Intels.
In her explanation she said that NPA and Intels have resolved their differences after the latter accepted to comply with the TSA policy.

 

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