The African Network of Environmental and Economic Justice (ANEEJ) has called for improved asset data management practices in Nigeria, urging the adoption of systems used in developed countries to strengthen transparency, accountability and coordination in asset recovery.
The call was made during a virtual meeting on the comparative analysis of peer learning from different jurisdictions on data management in asset recovery, held on Friday.
In a presentation, ANEEJ’s Programme Manager, Mr Innocent Edemhanria, examined asset recovery data management systems in the United Kingdom, Italy, France and the United States, comparing their practices with Nigeria’s framework under the Proceeds of Crime (Recovery and Management) Act, 2022.
Edemhanria identified the need for a unified system of asset identification to facilitate reliable reconciliation of records across government agencies, courts, registries and financial institutions.
“One persistent identification is the precondition for reliable cross-agency court, registry and financial reconciliation (US),” he said.
He also stressed the need for a functional national asset register that would support enforcement and accountability rather than serve merely as a repository for periodic statistical reports.
“The national record must be operational, triggering deadlines and custody controls, not periodic statistical warehouses (UK, US),” he added.
While acknowledging that agencies such as the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) and National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) had established asset record management systems, he said Nigeria needed a more standardised and coordinated framework.
He noted that the Proceeds of Crime Act, 2022, provided for the standardisation of a central asset database but did not expressly specify that its establishment should be domiciled in the Federal Ministry of Justice.
Among his recommendations were the introduction of disclosure checks, an authorised reporting function and the publication of aggregate quarterly statistics, alongside an annual bulletin to improve public access to information on recovered assets and their management.