The Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ola Olukoyede, has called on the Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of banks across the country to always abide by extant rules and regulations in the fight against economic and financial crimes and other acts of corruption.

Olukoyede gave the admonition while receiving the Body of Bank CEOs, under the auspices of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN), at the corporate headquarters of the EFCC in Abuja on Tuesday, February 20, 2024.

The EFCC chairman, who frowned at sharp practices, compromises, and unethical practices in the banking sector, stressed that the ethical reorientation of bank workers is imperative in sanitising the sector.

“I think the essential thing is for you all to play by the rules.  Banking fraud affects the economy considerably. We are ready to work with any bank executive that plays by the rules because that is the only way of growing the economy,” Olukoyede was quoted as saying in a statement issued by the EFCC spokesperson, Dele Oyewale, on Wednesday, February 21.

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The EFCC boss further assured the CEOs that the anti-graft agency would work with them in a way that would encourage mutual trust which, he said, would help banks and businesses to grow the economy.

He said: “We will work together, we don’t want to see any bank go down, we don’t want to see any business destroyed, especially when you are set up to create wealth and employment and that is what we need in Nigeria.

“You help businesses to grow, why should any government want to bring banks down? But there are enterprises that are set up to destroy the system, to destroy the economy, we will not allow those ones to survive.”

Olukoyede, therefore, reminded the banks’ CEOs that his focus is to use the instrumentality of the EFCC’s mandate to stimulate the country’s economy.

On his part, the Managing Director of Standard Chartered Bank, Lamin Madang, who led the group, commended Olukoyede on his appointment and admitted that he is succeeding in rebranding the image of the EFCC.

“We also note and commend the Commission’s outstanding achievement in securing a total of 3785 convictions in 2022 which stands as the highest number attained by any law enforcement agency in the world,” Madang added.

The Star