Nigerian bankers are seeking a special commercial court to deal with backlogs of financial-related cases amidst worries over the rising losses to cybercrimes.
A backlog of financial cases and knowledge gaps in the judiciary are raising concerns as the growing challenges may truncate the projected growth of the industry in Nigeria if urgent actions are not taken, bankers said yesterday in Abuja.
They also expressed readiness to recapitalize in line with the expectations of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) amidst the depreciation of naira.
Speaking at an event hosted by the National Judicial Institute (NJI) and the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN), Dr. Ken Opara, President of CIBN, stated that rather than having divisions within the current court system, a specialized court that handles only commercial and financial cases need to be established.
Opara expressed concern about the financial sector’s dynamic character and the necessity for judgment due to the development of financial technology.
In his view, the industry must collaborate in order to increase capacity; otherwise, the proper decision may continue to elude us.
“We must expedite cases. We are advocating for a business court for this reason. There has been significant progress, particularly in the division and department’s handling of business cases. However, we believe that much more work needs to be done, such as creating a specific court for business and financial disputes that can handle our financial issues,” the man stated.
According to Opara, robust cybersecurity measures are necessary since flaws in the worldwide system are causing capital to be lost.
Although CBN Governor Olayemi Cardoso had stated that banks would need to boost their capital bases in order to support President Bola Tinubu’s $1 trillion economy, Opara claimed banks had already taken action in advance of the apex.
The Financial Service Industry and the Judiciary: Upscaling for a Sound Economic Ecosystem was the theme of the event. According to Opara, in spite of numerous court rulings, magistrate courts are unlawfully granting bankers orders.
Opara went on to say that although the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) has a duty to reduce crime, commission employees are breaking the law by breaking into banks and ordering them to put no debits on their clients’ accounts, even though this goes against the law’s protection of bank account confidentiality.
“In a traditional garnishee application, the third party (garnishee) in possession of the debtor’s assets is named as the recipient of the attachment. But the usual practice still stands for the judgment creditor to go after every bank (as garnishees) without first confirming the bank’s liability to the judgment debtor,” he said.
