By John Okoh
Okauru receiving his award
The ease of going shopping with credit and debit cards in the habitual lavish purchases by most Nigeria shoppers, could have been impossible without the dedicated and pioneering work of Mr. Asishana Bayo Okauru, current Director General of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum, who was honoured at the weekend by the Association of Committee of Chief Compliance Officers of Banks in Nigeria, ACCOBIN at its tenth anniversary celebration.
As the pioneer Director of the Nigeria Finance Intelligence Unit, Okauru had overseen financial transactions in banks, up to a certain threshold, through the prying eyes of Chief Compliance Officers.
The main object of this duty is to track suspicious movement of funds and submit Suspicious Transaction Reports (STR) links to security agencies. Up until 2007, it meant looking at the movement of funds in 87 banks which were eventually pruned to 25 by the then Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Dr. Charles Chukwuma Soludo.
At the time, there was unhealthy rivalry among the banks that they held information back from one another. To the NFIU, this was a red flag as it allowed fraudulent people to commit the same crimes using the same modules in several banks simultaneously. Consequently 419 activity, which the rest of the world referred to as “Nigerian letters,” had a free reign.
What to do? The NFIU, under Okauru, invited the banks to form a committee which eventually metamorphosed into what is today the ACCOBIN. They began to share information and this stemmed 419 and reduced financial crimes in Nigeria to a reasonable extent.
Hitherto, it was known as the Committee of Chief Compliance Officers of Banks in Nigeria, CCCOBIN. Their new logo and emblem was unveiled as part of the week-long celebration.
In the words of members of the ACCOBIN, 2007 was an inflection point in their distinguished history during which “Okauru sowed the seed of what we are celebrating today”.
Also honoured was the pioneer Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Malam Nuhu Ribadu, who worked tirelessly to set up a committee on FIU in Nigeria after he discovered that there were just two in Africa – one in South Africa and the other in Mauritius.
Okauru was a member of the ten-man committee and when their findings were eventually submitted to the EFCC Chair, he was selected to head Nigeria’s FIU.
By 2007 Nigeria had applied to be a member of the Egmont Group and was admitted along with nine other countries. This gave Nigeria and Nigerians access to conducting financial transactions worldwide, using what Nigerians commonly call ATM cards.
From then on, VisaCard, MasterCard and all other cards which were mere baggage in the wallet in Nigeria became legal tender at home, as they were abroad. Nigeria was removed from the Financial Action Task Force list of Non-cooperative countries and Territories (NCCTs), the rogue nations of economic transactions.
In its letter to Okauru, signed by Franklyn Bennie, Chairman, Planning Committee, ACCOBIN said it was honouring Okauru “for his contributions to the advancement of the committee.” Access Bank and a few other people were honoured along with Okauru at the occasion.
