The Kaduna State Internal Revenue Service (KADIRS) has sealed some branches of Access Bank, the Regional Office of Transmission Company of Nigeria and six other companies over tax liabilities amounting to N419.3 million.
According to the agency’s Head of Corporate Communications, Mr Zakari Muhammad, the affected bank and companies were closed based on a court order after they failed to settle their outstanding tax returns of N419.3 million.
He identified the companies as Access Bank – N249.9 million; Transmission Company of Nigeria’s Regional Office – N56.3 million; Transmission Company of Nigeria’s sub-regional office – N67.7 million; and Sky Express Airways – N5.4 million.
Others are Azman Air Services – N15.2 million; China Zhonghao Nigeria – N8.6 million; Indomie Noodle, Kaduna – N9.3 million; and Premier Feed Mills – N7 million.
Muhammad stated that KADIRS was empowered by law to seal the premises of organisations that fail to remit taxes due to the state, citing Section 104, sub-section 3 and 4 of the Personal Income Tax (Amendment) Act, 2011 and Section 37, sub-section 3 and 4 of Kaduna State Tax Codification and Consolidation Law, 2020, as the legal instruments.
Business
GTBank, Zenith Bank Under Investigation For Data Breach
The Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC) says it is investigating three banks, a university and other suspects over alleged data breach.
NDPC national commissioner Vincent Olatunji disclosed this in a statement on Thursday.
Mr Olatunji said the investigation came following complaints from data subjects. He explained that with the new Nigerian Data Protection Act (NDPA), the commission had been empowered with a legal framework to address issues of citizens’ data breaches.
“In the last few weeks, the NDPC has received complaints bordering on unlawful data processing, unauthorised access to personal data and violation of data subjects’ rights,” stated the NDPC chief. “Under Part 10 of the newly signed NDPA 2023, a data controller with a turnover of N200 billion yearly may pay as high as N2 billion, which represents two per cent of the gross revenue.”
He added, “Not only that, offenders also risk up to one-year jail term. We are currently investigating Guarantee Trust Bank, Fidelity, Unity, Zenith banks, Leadway Insurance and Babcock University, among others, for data breach.”
According to him, many micro-finance banks have yet to align their operations with data privacy and protection requirements.
He further revealed that loaning organisations would face the law with the new mandate of the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission.
Mr Olatunji said the mandate required loan organisations to seek compliance and clearance from NDPC before approving online lenders.
“The commission is investigating over 400 complaints in the online lending sector. Soko Loan is already working on a comeback to the digital lending market, but yet to be approved,” said the commissioner.
He, however, said that the commission was engaging in sensitisation exercises to ensure that data controllers understood the implications of a data breach.
According to the national commissioner, the NDPC prioritises awareness more than the scorched earth enforcement process.
Source; barristerNG.com
Sources within Heritage Bank has alleged that there is crisis involving the current Managing Director and Chief Executive of the bank, Mr. Akinola George-Taylor and some board members.
Less than one year after assuming office as the institution’s top shot, the new bank chief may have plunged the bank into a boardroom crisis, compounding its many challenges.
George-Taylor, who joined Heritage Bank as Acting Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer on September 12, 2022, succeeded Ifie Sekibo, the bank’s founder and pioneer managing director, who served out his 10-year tenure in September 2022.
George-Taylor was, however, confirmed by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) as the substantive Managing Director of the lender in April 2023.
But, while the bank’s shareholders may have been expecting that the new helmsman would change its fortunes and drive growth, sources said he has instead, allegedly, instigated internal crisis in an attempt to rid the bank of those suspected to be loyalists of some board members, and employ his own people.
The move, sources disclosed, were connected with the new bank chief’s plan to oust some board members, who are said to be at loggerheads with him, from the bank.
The bank’s chief is said to be enjoying the support of a top shareholder of the bank whom sources say is allegedly determined to solely take over the bank after getting rid of the owners.
Top sources in the bank, which has been struggling to stay afloat in recent months, revealed that not less than 70 senior staff members have been sacked, while a number of others were asked to resign.
Besides those who were forced to leave, sources informed that some resigned voluntarily over poor working conditions, while the once active branches of the bank are as quiet as graveyards.
It was further gathered that the affected staff were disengaged without being paid their accrued entitlements and allowances.
This development comes despite an order by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) barring deposit money banks from mass sack of their workers.
“I can tell you that there is war at Heritage Bank as we speak. Over 70 persons have been asked to go, while some were asked to resign. Mind you, those who were asked to go have not been paid any compensation,” said a management staff who preferred anonymity.
“The mission of the new managing director is to ease out those who are loyal to some board members whom the managing director is not in tune with, so he could employ his own people,” one of the sources said.
The latest crisis comes amid persisting financial distress in the bank.
It was gathered that the bank has been struggling to pay workers’ salaries for some time now, even as depositors have not been able to access their funds.
The apex bank, it would be recalled, had come under pressure to withdraw the bank’s license over its alleged bankruptcy issues, and inability to meet obligations to depositors.
Many had wondered why Nigeria’s banking regulator have not wielded its hammer on the bank despite its troubled and distressed state.
Further investigations, however, revealed that apart from the issues of “Capital Adequacy Ratio (CAR) and the Liquidity Ratio (LR), the commercial bank is also grappling with many other crises that tend to threaten its survival.
One of them is its poor services which are staring its customers in the face. Already, most of its branches are awash with complaints of unsatisfied customers whose singsong is their plans to close their accounts due to long hours they experience to get services from Heritage Bank staff.
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