The Standard Chartered Bank (SCB) during a courtesy visit to the corporate headquarters of the the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in Jabi, Abuja, commended the Commission on its fight against corruption in the country.
EFCC Head of Media and Publicity, Dele Oyewale, in a statement indicated that the Standard Chartered Bank (SCB) delegation was led by the Executive Director, and Head of Compliance, Siji Adeyinka.
The Managing Director and Head, Europe and Americas, Mathew Brown, during the visits said that the bank regards EFCC as “a very interesting law enforcement agency that is trying hard to protect the image of the country”. He submitted that the bank enjoyed working with the EFCC.
Adeyinka emphasised that SCB was engaging the EFCC to understand its strategy in combating economic and financial crimes as a way of identifying with its objectives.
Standard Chartered Bank delegation and EFCC officials
According to him, “Part of our intention is to continue to engage with the EFCC to try as much as possible to let them understand our own strategy in terms of combating financial crimes.”
The Executive Director requested reciprocal support from the EFCC. He disclosed that the bank offered training on financial crimes to staff of the Commission recently.
The Executive Chairman of the EFCC, Ola Olukoyede, represented by the Secretary to the Commission, Mohammad Hammajoda, said the Commission was ready to collaborate with any Agency that would help rid the country of corruption. He, however, called for a Memorandum of Understanding, MoU, detailing areas of mutual interests, between the EFCC and SCB.
According to him, “We will continue to collaborate with you. The essential thing is for us to deploy everything we have to fight corruption, physically, mentally and spiritually. Let’s speak against it, let’s fight it for us to leave legacies for our children to reach their pinnacles”.
The Director of Operations, Abdulkarim Chukkol, also said that the EFCC places high premium on capacity building, thanking SCB for its training programme for staff of the Commission.
“Banks are our major stakeholders in the fight against economic and financial crimes. This is the first training we are getting from SCB. We will take our relationship with the bank more seriously”, he said.