By Mohammed Mohammed
The Chairman, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr. Abdulrasheed Bawa, on Thursday said its recently launched app for tracking and reporting economic crimes, is now the most downloaded in Apple and Google, dwarfing Nigerian music download.
This is even as he revealed that the app has so far recorded 13 million downloads globally.
Meanwhile, the Australian government has pledged to support the Commission in the fight against economic and financial crimes.
The Australian High Commissioner to Nigeria, Mr. John Donnelly, made the pledge during a courtesy visit to the Chairman, in Abuja.
EFCC Spokesperson, Mr. Wilson Uwujaren, in a statement, said the High Commissioner was impressed with the Commission’s annual report and the achievements of Bawa in his 100 days in office, adding that he has seen how prepared the Commission was, in tackling corruption.
“I am very impressed with your programme, am here to explore options and discuss issues concerning our mutual interest and to also show our support,” he said.
He observed that Nigeria and Australia have similar experience in the area of tax fraud investigation and promised to link the EFCC with the Home Affairs Office based in Pretoria, South Africa, for necessary assistance and collaboration
Responding, Bawa, thanked the High Commissioner for the visit, stating that Australia is among the few countries that have a history of mutual cooperation with the Commission.
He thanked Australia for past support to the Commission. In his words, “I want to let you know that Australia is one of the few countries where we have long standing relationship, we have a Memorandum of Understanding with the Australia Federal Police in 2012 and the Western Australia Police,
He regretted that these MoUs were not adequately implemented in line with the vision of his predecessors.
“We are open for collaboration and any kind of assistance that will help us achieve results, we are also aware of the cybercrime issues of which many people from your country are victims; so we need to bridge the gap, our hands are open and we will achieve our mandate in full”, he said.
The EFCC boss disclosed that the Commission on Wednesday launched its Strategic Plan that will run through 2025. “We intend to achieve our vision of a corrupt-free Nigeria through the five objectives of the plan, including prevention, intelligence-driven investigation and development of human capacity; because without being well equipped, we cannot achieve all that.”
