A Strategy for Effective Asset Tracing, Identification and Recovery In Nigeria

Onakpoberuo Onoriode Victor

2/01/2020

Introduction

An asset is an object or subject of value. The Oxford Learners dictionary defines it as, “a person
or thing that is valuable or useful to somebody/something”. Investopedia sees it as, “a resource
with economic value that an individual, corporation or country owns or controls with the
expectation that it will provide a future benefit.” For Wikipedia, an asset is; "any resource
owned by the business. Anything tangible or intangible that can be owned or controlled to
produce value and that is held by a company to produce positive economic value”.

A Nations asset covers all valuable subjects and objects such as its human and Natural resources.

Corruption and Nigeria’s Assets since 1960

Corruption has been a significant setback to the development of Nigeria since independence.
According to Matthew T. Page (a nonresident scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for
International Peace), “Corruption is the single greatest obstacle preventing Nigeria from
achieving its enormous potential”. It is estimated that Nigeria loses US$600 million annually to
money laundering (See: https://www.casade.org/money-laundering-and-trans-organized-
financial-crimes-in-nigeria/ ).

Nigeria’s GDP has been on a steady rise from $4.196 billion in 1960 to $397.27 billion as at
2018 (See: https://data.worldbank.org/country/nigeria ). There was a high of $568.499 billion in
2014, yet the commensurate impact of Nigeria's GDP is yet to be seen in terms of actual physical
development. Nigeria is currently ranked 158 on the Human Development Index (HDI), coming
behind Zimbabwe, Angola, Kenya, Ghana and South Africa. Although so much is been
generated, yet so much is also been stolen which has adversely slowed down Nigeria’s
development, especially in the area of providing quality infrastructures such as roads, electricity,
housing, health care etc. It is estimated that about $600 billion has been stolen from Nigeria since
its Independence in 1960 (See; https://punchng.com/nearly-600bn-stolen-from-nigeria-since-
independence-economist/ ). Much of these monies are laundered and end up in various forms
such as; exotic real estates, luxury cars, jewelries, hotels etc. These assets are usually acquired
with false identities or those of proxies which often makes it cumbersome for law enforcement
agencies to trace, identify and recover. If we were to put $600 Billion in practical perspective, it
will amount to building about 66 nuclear power plants, each having a capacity of 1100 MW, at a
cost of $9 billion per plant. This should give a total of about 66,000 Mega Watts (MW) of
electricity. The contrast to this is that Nigeria is currently generating only about 4000 MW of
electricity from its National grid.
This clearly shows as have been mentioned before, that corruption especially theft through
money laundering is a major factor in the slow development of Nigeria.

In view of the seriousness of the negative impact of money laundering to the Nigerian economy,
it is expected that all reasonable measures should be sought and deployed to arrest this
phenomenon.

The following strategy is hereby most respectfully proposed.

Strategy for Effective Asset Tracing, Identification and Recovery In Nigeria:

A proposed project for the elimination of Money Laundering and Related Offences in Nigeria
by Onakpoberuo Onoriode Victor

1.00 Proposed Project Title:

National Property Information & Identification System (NPIIS) 

2.00 Objective:

The objective of this project is to secure, inform and identify assets and their owners;

    i.        Provide stringent security measures against theft of public funds, perpetrated through
shadow acquisition of properties

    ii.           Provide a platform for easy access to information on all assets in Nigeria and
beneficial owners of such assets

iii. Promote and institutionalize transparency and accountability in public governance and
private business

3.00 Methodology:

1. Electronic Data Capturing of Assets (EDCA)

    i.       Mandatory data capturing of All valuable assets, which may be physical, virtual and
intellectual. Such as real estates, bank statements (local and foreign) or lodgments in personal
vaults, jewelries, luxury cars, exotic furnishings, rear arts collections, vintage beverages,
livestock, stocks, bonds, shares, companies etc.
   ii.       A specific time frame shall be given for the voluntary declaration and data capturing of
assets nationwide.

2. Assignment of Unique Identification Number:

National Property Identification Number (NPIN)

    i.       All captured assets shall be assigned a unique ID (NPIN)

    ii.           Trade or transfer shall be through this NPIN

   iii.          It shall be linked to the National DATA base, Bank Verification Number (BVN) and
other National data mining sources

  iv.          The beneficial owner captured shall have a single NPIN to which all his captured
properties shall be linked.

3. Enactment of Legal Framework

The adoption of this NPIIS shall necessitate the enactment of a NATIONAL PROPERTY
ADMINISTRATION ACT.

    i.       The Act shall provide a statutory definition of “valuable property”

    ii.           Prescribe the requirements for data capturing of properties

   iii.          Empower an agency of government to collect and manage the data,

  iv.          Setout the procedure for the acquisition, transfer or exchange of properties on the
NPIIS platform

   v.         Give law enforcement agencies of government power to access the NPIIS platform
remotely for the purposes of gathering evidence for prosecution of corrupt persons

  vi.          Stipulate penalties for the violation of the Act

4. Penalties

The enacted Act shall make it compulsory for the registration of all valuable properties.

     i.          All valuable properties not listed may be deemed to have been fraudulently acquired
or proceeds of crime

    ii.           All unregistered properties shall be forfeited to the government.

   iii.          All forfeited properties shall be registered and assigned to an NPIN dedicated to
warehousing forfeited properties

  iv.          All such registered forfeited properties may be made available for acquisition by
members of the public through the NPIIS platform

4.00 Project Derivable:

The project if adopted and implemented may deliver the following;

       i.           Provide a Secure platform for exchange of properties in Nigeria

     ii.           Eliminate fraud/ corruption in property management in Nigeria

   iii.           Eliminate shadow acquisition of property which facilitates money laundering

   iv.           Assist law enforcement agencies in easily tracing, identifying and recovering assets
that are proceeds of crime

     v.           Provide a ready source of data on ownership of assets in Nigeria

   vi.           Provide reliable data for Tax computation, thereby increasing revenue generation

 vii.           Provide a realistic platform to assess income and expenditure of individuals and alert
when they are living above their means

5.00 Conclusion

Since 1960 up until now Nigeria's major challenge has been corruption. The systematic theft of
the collective wealth of Nigeria by a few through money laundering should therefore be given all
the needed attention so that the recycling of the current disturbing statistics on theft of public
assets is put to a final stop.

This strategy is open to further reviews and criticisms.

Thank you and God bless Nigeria

Reference:

https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/asset
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/a/asset.asp

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asset

https://carnegieendowment.org/2018/07/17/new-taxonomy-for-corruption-in-nigeria-pub-76811

http://hdr.undp.org/en/content/2019-human-development-index-ranking

https://punchng.com/nearly-600bn-stolen-from-nigeria-since-independence-economist/

https://www.casade.org/money-laundering-and-trans-organized-financial-crimes-in-nigeria/

https://www.synapse-energy.com/sites/default/files/SynapsePaper.2008-07.0.Nuclear-Plant-
Construction-Costs.A0022_0.pdf

https://www.usaid.gov/powerafrica/nigeria