President Muhammadu Buhari has signed an amendment to the Executive Order 008 of 2018 on Voluntary Offshore Assets Regularisation Scheme (VOARS).
The order gives all relevant persons and their intermediaries, who have defaulted in the declaration of their offshore assets, the opportunity to voluntarily declare and regularise their offshore assets, subject to the fulfillment of the terms and conditions stipulated in the order and other subsequent regulations.
"President Muhammadu Buhari of the Federal Republic of Nigeria signed the Executive Order 008 on Voluntary Offshore Assets Regularisation Scheme (VOARS) in October 2018.
"The FGN (Federal Government of Nigeria) hopes that relevant persons amongst Nigerians, Nigerian entities and their intermediaries will seize the opportunity provided by VOARS to declare and regularise their offshore assets before it is too late.
"For defaulters, who may be tempted to continue concealment of their offshore assets, the Executive Order 008 as amended, stipulates that "any domestic or foreign bank, asset manager or intermediary that cooperates with defaulters, enabling them to conceal offshore assets and obligations pertaining to them shall, upon discovery, be liable to pay to FGN a penalty on the total of such offshore assets, in addition to other penalties provided for under Nigerian laws or laws of foreign countries from which Nigeria can benefit."
