Ola Olukoyede, chairman of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has said Nigeria loses over N40 billion to employment fraud annually.
Gatekeepers News reports that Olukoyede disclosed this during a meeting with officials of the Nigerian Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA) at EFCC headquarters in Abuja on Friday.
The EFCC chairman noted that research he conducted in 2007 before joining the agency showed employers and employees were also defrauding each other.
He said, “In 2007, way back before I came to the EFCC, I did research into employment fraud, covering how employers defraud their staff and how employees also perpetrate fraud against their employers. I discovered way back then that Nigeria lost over N40 billion every year to employment fraud.”
Olukoyede said when he assumed office as EFCC chairman, the agency saved Nigeria billions of naira after discovering that many unemployed people were on federal government’s payroll.
Olukoyede said corruption and financial crimes are the greatest problems bedeviling Nigeria’s economic growth.
He said, “Eventually, when I became chief of staff in the EFCC, we investigated the IPPIS platform and discovered that a lot of people collected salaries when they were not in the employment of the government, and we were able to save the government billions of naira.”
“As I am talking to you, we are still investigating that because the crooks keep on bringing up new strategies, while we also continue to devise new means of checkmating them.”
The EFCC boss promised the NECA delegation, led by director-general Adewale Oyerinde, of EFCC’s collaboration towards making workers embrace best practices.
The NECA DG sought collaboration between the two agencies to eradicate money laundering and cybercrime in the private sector.
He said, “We are here to seek collaboration with the EFCC in whatever context and partnership in tackling the issue.”
“In specific terms, we are looking at having joint workshops on the role of the private sector in reducing or eradicating the menace of money laundering, cybercrime and identity thefts, which are becoming the major concern not only to you as EFCC, but also to us as organised businesses.”
