In what appears to be a move to make capital out of over 41,000 Bauchi state civil servants undergoing verification exercise, First City Monument Bank Plc is extorting money from the government workers in the name of BVN print out, WikkiTimes has exclusively gathered.
The workers who visited the bank to obtain their Bank Verification Number, BVN, to meet up the requirement of the verification committee set up by the Bauchi State government were asked by officials of the bank to deposit N525 as condition to obtaining the BVN.
“If a customer fails to deposit the money, he or she will not be attended to” said a visibly angry civil servant undergoing the verification exercise in one of the LGAs.
“When I visited the bank to obtain my BVN, I was told that I have to pay N525 before getting the BVN print out. If you have money in the account, they will just deduct the N525, and if one does not have, one is asked by the bank officials to deposit the money before you are even attended to” said Hamisu Isa.
Hamisu revealed that at the time he visited the bank to obtain his BVN, there were plenty of civil servants who had come there for the same purpose. “And I’m authoritatively telling you that all of us at the bank were asked to pay the same amount of money before obtaining our BVN”, he stated.
He said he was surprised when he learned that it was only FCMB that was extorting the said money from the civil servants before allowing them to obtain their BVN.
“If the officials of the bank realize that you do not have the money, they will require you to get out and look for alternatives before you are attended to”, said another civil servant who pledges anonymity.
“We were surprised when we discovered that it was only FCMB that was extorting money from civil servants. “AS for me, I had to borrow money from my friend to deposit the amount because I didn’t receive my October salary,” revealed another worker who was yet to be verified as at the time he spoke to WikkiTimes.
Another worker who identified himself as Hassan Ishaq said “when I visited the Bank to get my BVN, I was asked to see the bank manager, who referred me to where I can obtain the BVN, there, I was asked to deposit the N525 before they print it out for me. “And you know, the bank manager will not stamp your paper if you didn’t pay the money”, Ishaq has said.
Ishaq who said he visited the bank on November 6, said that he had no money in his account when he was asked to deposit the N525. “I had to beg my friend to transfer me N600 into my bank account before I got my BVN print out and stamped by the bank manager”.
But the committee set up by the Bauchi State government to verify the authenticity of the over 41,000 suspected non-existent workers and pensioners on its payroll says it has not asked any of the affected persons to submit their Bank Verification Number, BVN.
Speaking to newsmen in Bauchi, the Secretary of the Committee,IsiakaTijjani, said they have not issued such directive to anybody, adding that the affected workers were doing that at their own peril.
“We are yet to start dealing with the affected workers individually, and may be they are doing that to equip themselves”, says Tijjani.
On the amount being charged by the said bank, Tijjani said the fee was exorbitant.
Isiaka lied, Verification Committee using BVN
But Isiaka’s claims that the verification committee did not asked Civil servants to submit BVN print out is not true.
On the October 21, 2019, the state government, through state’s Head of Civil Service, announced that over 41,000 civil servants from different MDAs may lose October salary due to their inability to have Bank Verification Number linked to their salary accounts.
“From
the available records, it was discovered that total number of 41,448 staff were
affected by this development with the following breakdown:
A) State service. 5,316
B). Primary Healthcare. 1,933
C,.Local Education Authority. 19,605
D, Local Government staff 4,705
E) State pensioners. 4,019
F) Local Government pensioners 5,870
WikkiTimes recalls that on the 25th of October, 2019, the governor suspended all education secretaries, directors of Primary Health Care and their Treasurers of all the 20 local government areas of the state.
In a statement, the state’s commissioner for information, LadanSalihu,said the suspension was to enable the state government conduct investigation into the payment of salaries to civil servants without BVN.
The 17 member ‘authentication committee’ whose terms of reference include to investigate whether the over 41,000 staff being paid monthly were genuine staff of the state had 8 terms of reference that were categorical on BVN, which explicitly requested workers to submit their BVN for verification.
FCMB Reacts
It was a drama of some sort when WikkiTimes correspondent visited the two FCMB branches within Bauchi metropolis. The branch manager of the bank stationed at Murtala Mohammed Way, adjacent Bauchi state library, declined to comment and directed the reporter to the bank’s main branch around Jos Road of the metropolis.
When our correspondent visited the main branch, he was directed to speak to the deputy manager who authoritatively said the charges were legal and that the bank’s policies were different from other banks. The deputy manager who said his name was “FCMB Jos road” when asked by our reporter to mention his full name so that he could be quotedalso said “each and every commercial bank has its own policies or way of commission, as long as it is in line with the regulatory authority, if it has not violated any CBN or NDIC rule, then it has right to use its own policies.
However, when our correspondent sent a whatsApp message to the bank hotline, one Helen said “Kindly note that the cost is valid, as it is not free”
Guides to Charges by Banks and Other Financial Institutions in Nigeria suggests FCMB acted illegally
However, a policy approved by the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Guides to Charges by Banks and Other Financial Institutions in Nigeriawhich provided “basis for the application of charges on various products and services offered by banks and Other Financial Institutions (OFIs) in Nigeria to their customers” did not included charges on BVN printout.
The policy issued to all banks and other financial institutions in Nigeria on April 21, 2017 was categorical on the kind of charges banks were allowed to charge their customers. For instance, section 10 of the policy which specified charges on electronic banking such as card maintenance fees, credit card charges, ATM withdrawals from other Bank’s ATMs exceeding 3 times within a month did not included charges on financial statements and BVN requests by customers.
The CBN’s prudential guidelines which addressees “various aspects of banks’ operations, such as risk management, corporate governance, and anti-money laundering/ counter financing of terrorism and loan loss provisioning” did not also allow banks to charge customers on BVN requests.
CBN did not respond to WikkiTimes’ FOI request for clarification
When WikkiTimes correspondent visited the Bauchibranch of the CBNto find out whether there’s a policy or law that allows commercial banks to charge money on BVN printout, officials at the apex bank asked our reporter to put his request in writing.
However, an official of the Customers’ Service unit of the bank who does not want to be named told our reporter that there is no any policy that allows banks to charge such amount. He said even if they were to charge, the said amount (N5,25) was too exorbitant.
When our correspondent could not get reply one week after he wrote to the bank requesting clarification, an official of the Bank identified as Yay DauduGiade (YauCbn) (Truecaller) said the Bauchi branch has forwarded the letter to Abuja as is the tradition of the bank.
He said it was only their head office in Abuja that was saddled with the responsibility to respond to WikkiTimes’ request.
One hundred and fourteen days since the letter was sent, the bank did not respond to WikkiTimes Freedom of Information request seeking clarification on the extortion, and FCMB had continued to extort the civil servants, many of whom had to borrow money to pay the charges since their salaries were not paid at the time of the verification.
