• Staggering $94b stolen from Africa yearly, reveals GIABA
• Senate moves to create new agency beside EFCC, ICPC for accountability

Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has revealed that it discovered an account opened by a foreigner to receive payments from Nigerians seeking six weeks degree abroad.
  
The Senate, yesterday, passed for second reading a bill seeking to amend the Proceeds of Crime (Recovery and Management) Act, 2022, with a proposal to establish a new centralised agency to manage assets and properties recovered from unlawful activities.
 
The Chairman of ICPC, Dr Musa Aliyu, made the disclosure, yesterday, in Abuja during a stakeholders’ advocacy event on assets tracing, recovery and management put together by the Centre for Fiscal Transparency and Public Integrity (CeFTPI) with the support of the Inter-Governmental Action Group against Money Laundering in West Africa (GIABA).
  
Aliyu noted: “Within some weeks, we were able to discover that a foreigner opened an account in Nigeria while Nigerian students are paying money into the account to obtain that six-week degree.
  
“We were able to track the account. We obtained a civil forfeiture order. We have been trying to put much effort to ensure that the culprits are brought to book, especially those that are beyond our shores.”
  
He stressed the need for all anti-corruption agencies and other agencies in the country to work together in synergy to ensure that those who engaged in corruption did not benefit from their crime.
  
In his address, Chairman of the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB), Dr Abdullahi Bello, who disclosed that the Bureau was embarking on an ambitious audit of over 10,000 public servants’ assets declaration, revealed that about 20 per cent of their declarations were false.
  
Director-General of GIABA, Edwin Harris, who noted that a lot of assets had been stolen from Africa, disclosed that the assets were scattered all over the world.
  
Recalling President Thabo Mbeki’s report under the auspices of the United Nation’s Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), which revealed that over $50 billion was stolen yearly from Africa, Harris disclosed that the most current and realistic amount today is staggering between $88 billion and $94 billion.
  
In his opening remarks, CeFTPI Executive Director, Umar Yakubu, disclosed that the event brought together key stakeholders from anti-corruption institutions, law enforcement, the judiciary, civil society and international development partners to explore collaborative pathways in asset recovery, strengthen accountability, and launch innovative mechanisms that support transparency and citizen engagement. 
  
The bill, sponsored by Idiat Adebule (APC, Lagos West), is titled the Proceeds of Crime (Recovery and Management) Bill, 2025 (SB. 343).
  
She said the bill aims to improve accountability, transparency and efficiency in handling recovered assets by removing asset management duties from the 18 agencies tasked with prosecution and property management under the existing law.
  
Leading the debate on the floor of the Senate, Adebule described the amendment as a necessary step to address overlapping functions and inefficiencies embedded in the current law.