EFCC and Fight Against Money Laundering in Nigeria Between 2013 and 2016
Chapter One
AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF STUDY
The aim of the research work is to determine the following:
- The effectiveness of the EFCC in the alleviation of money laundering in Nigeria.
- The roles of the federal government of Nigeria in fighting corruption.
- The effect of money laundering on the economic growth and development of Nigeria.
- The disadvantages of money of laundring.
- The best way of stoping money laundring in Nigeria.
- The effect of money laundring on the performance of the future leaders of Nigeria.
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
CONCEPTUAL FRAME WORK
CONCEPTS OF MONEY LAUNDRING IN NIGERIA
Money Laundering as an expression is one of fairly recent origin. Money laundering is a sophisticated crime not to be taken very seriously at the first glance by anyone in the society. As compared to street crimes, it is a modern crime. At times people also refer to it as a victimless crime but the reality is that it is not a crime against a particular individual, but it is a crime against nations, economies government, rule of law and world at large. Money laundering has become a world wide menace.
The goal of a large number of criminal acts is to generate profit for the individual or group that carries out the act and then hide either the source or the destination of money. Money laundering is the processing of these criminal proceeds to disguise their illegal origin. This process is of critical importance, as it enables the criminal to enjoy these profits without jeopardizing their source.
Some of the crimes like-illegal arms sales, smuggling, corruption, drug trafficking and the activities of organized crime including tax evasion generate huge sums. Insider trading, bribery and computer fraud schemes also produce large profits and create the incentive to legitimize the ill-gotten gains through money laundering.
When a criminal activity generates substantial profits, the individual or group involved must find a way to control the funds without attracting attention to the underlying activity or the persons involved. Criminals do this by disguising the sources, changing the form, or moving the funds to a place where they are less likely to attract attention. Otherwise, they can’t use the money because it would connect them to the criminal activity, and law enforcement officials would seize it.
If done successfully, it allows the criminals to maintain control over their proceeds and ultimately to provide a legitimate cover for their source of income. Where criminals are allowed to use the proceeds of crime, the ability to launder such proceeds makes crime more attractive.
SIGNIFICANCE OF MONEY LAUDERING
Money laundering is an issue that has gained increasing significance following the issue of boko haram in Nigeria, Nigeria as anation has discovered that the level of money laundring in Nigeria has increased significantly. Findings showed that the high increase in money laundering was because most politicians use it as a source of the funding of terrorist activities.
The globalization process and the communications revolution have made crime increasingly international in scope, and the financial aspects of crime have become more complex due to rapid advances in technology. The spread of international banks all over the world has facilitated the transmission and the disguising of the origin of funds. This may have devastating social consequences and poses a threat to the security of any country,large or small.It provides fuel for drug dealers, terrorists, illegal arms dealers,corrupt public officials and all types of criminals to operate and expand their criminal activities.Laundering enables criminal activity to continue.
Money laundering causes a diversion of resources to less productive areas of the economy which in turn depresses economic growth. The possible social and political costs of money laundering, if left unchecked or dealt with ineffectively, are serious. The economic and political influence of criminal organizations can weaken the social fabric, collective ethical standards, and ultimately the democratic institutions of society.
THE EEFECT OF MONEY LAUNDERING ON THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF NIGERIA
One of the most serious microeconomic effects of money laundering is felt in the private sector. Money launderers often use front companies, which co-mingle the proceeds of illicit activity with legitimate funds, to hide the ill-gotten gains. In some cases, front companies are able to offer products at prices below what it costs the manufacturer to produce. Therefore front companies have a competitive advantage over legitimate firms that draw capital funds from financial markets. This makes it difficult, if not impossible, for legitimate business to compete against front companies with subsidised funding, a situation that can result in the crowding out of private sector business by criminal organisations. The management principles of these criminal enterprises are not consistent with traditional free market principles of legitimate business, which results in further negative macroeconomic effects (McDowell, 2001).
Financial institutions that rely on the proceeds of crime have additional challenges in adequately managing their assets, liabilities and operations. For example, large sums of laundered money may arrive at a financial institution but then disappear suddenly, without notice, through wire transfers in response to non-market factors, such as law enforcement operations. This can result in liquidity problems and runs on banks. Criminal activity has been associated with a number of bank failures around the globe, including the failure of the first Internet bank, the European Union Bank (McDowell, 2001).
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CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH DESIGN
Research design is the plan structure and strategy of investigation developed so as to obtain answer to research questions and control variance (Kerlinger, 1973:45).
SOURCES OF DATA
The researcher used both primary and secondary methods of data collection.
Primary Data: This is data that is obtained first hand from the respondents. Primary data method is obtained through the administration of questionnaires and personal interviews.
Secondary Data: secondary source of data are opinions of exports in the experts views and are obtained from related literature from private, professional ad academic libraries.
THE POPULATION STUDY
The study of population would cover about 120 workers of the EFCC Nigeria.
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA PRESENTATION, DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION
This chapter is devoted to the presentation, analysis and interpretation of the data gathered in the course of this study. The data are based on the number of copies of the questionnaire completed and returned by the respondents. The data are presented in tables and the analysis is done using the chi-square test.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
The main aim of this research work is to:
- The effectiveness of the EFCC in the alleviation of money laundering in Nigeria.
- The roles of the federal government of Nigeria in fighting corruption.
- The effect of money laundering on the economic growth and development of Nigeria.
- The disadvantages of money of laundring.
From the analysis based on our findings; we discovered that the responses of the respondents about the effect of corruption on the economic growth and development were positive.
We also found out that money laundering has effect on the future leaders of Nigeria.
CONCLUSION
The EFCC participation in the allevaition of money laundering in Nigeria help reduce the level of crises in Nigeria because most of these looter are the major sponsors of some of these terrorist units in Nigeria since one of the major sources of finance of these terrorist are through money laundering.
The level at which money get missing in Nigeria starts from the federal government of Nigeria.
RECOMMENDATION
From the findings we have made, we recommend that:
- If the federal government of Nigeria want to stop money laundering in Nigeria, they should start from evaluating their offices.
- The level of terrorist attacks in Nigeria can be stopped by fighting money laundering.
- Every governor of the state should be held accountable for any loss of money in his or her regime.
- If money laundering continues then the auditors are not working, the federal government of Nigeria should work on the audit department.
- The central bank of Nigeria should monitor the money inflow and out of the country as this will help the EFCC of Nigeria to fight money laundering.
- There should be an instruction from the federal government of Nigeria to monitor the rate of transfers going on in the country.
REFERENCES
- Adamolekun L. (2002). Governance Context and Reorientation of Government in L. Adamolekun (ed), Public Administration in Africa: Main Issues and Selected Country Studies, S pectrum Books, Ibadan.
- Agar a, T. and Olarinmoye, O. (2009) Ethics and accountability in Nigeria’s public service: An historical overview. Journal of public administration & Policy Research Vol. 1(1), pp. 11- 18.Available: http://www.academicjournals. org/jhf. (Accessed: November, 2012).
- Agbese, P. O. (1998). Foreword: Africa and the Dilemmas of Corruption, in J. M. Mbaku, (ed.), Corruption and the Crisis of Institutional Reforms in Africa, Lewiston- New York, The Edwin Mellen Press.
- Barber, M. D. (1998) Ethical Hermeneutics. Rationalism in Enrique Dussel’s Philosophy of Liberation, New York, Fordham University Press.
- Blair, M.M. (1995) Ownership and Control, The Brookings Institution, Washington, D.C.
