By Anthony Nwachukwu
Contrary to claims that it was into economic sabotage through illegal foreign exchange deals, the management of Dangote Industries Limited (DIL) has warned sponsors of the allegation to desist from such underhand practices.
This followed its understanding that some sponsored online media reports were suggesting that DIL was being probed for illegal foreign exchange deals and money laundering by a special investigator, Jim Obazee, who is probing the leadership of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) under its former governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele.
According to DIL, the allegation was “spurious and a rehash of a similar report peddled out of malice by a competitor, BUA Group, masquerading as a concerned Nigerian in 2016.”
In a statement, DIL said the authors of the current allegation merely of rejigged the old false story started in 2016 and published in some Nigerian dailies to make it appear authentic and as a new development.
The statement noted that in the publication of Monday, March 14, 2016 in BusinessDay and Leadership newspapers, the author had alleged that “about $3 billion foreign exchange sourced from the CBN was diverted to other Dangote companies outside Nigeria, a practice that encourages round tripping and money laundering since there is no proper documentation,” the statement read.
It explained that the same report “was now being given a fresh false slant by one Ahmed Fahad purporting it to be a new petition directed to the attention of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Mr. Jim Obazee, the special investigator probing the CBN.
“Subsequently, different blogs and social media platforms have been carrying variants of this arrant falsehood to the detriment of our corporate reputation.
“Attempt by the authors of this misleading allegation to give it a fresh life in the media is baffling as the two newspapers that were misguided into publishing it as advertorial then (2016) have since publicly apologised to the management of Dangote Industries Limited in writing as well as retracted the advertorial in its entirety in their respective publications.
“Indeed, BusinessDay and Leadership Newspapers admitted that the advertorial was sponsored by Messrs. BUA Nigeria Limited.”
DIL insisted that foreign exchange for its numerous projects were sourced strictly from Interbank Foreign Exchange market in compliance with CBN approvals and that Letters of Credit were established for the construction of the various operational plants and for the purchase of heavy equipment and spares required for the take-off of the Dangote Cement plants.
“The terms and conditions for payments on the transactions were clearly spelt out in the Letters of Credit instruments and in line with the International Chamber of Commerce – Universal Customs & Practice for Documentation Credit – UCP 600,” it explained.
“It is also crucial to note that the Letters of Credit in favour of Sinoma International Engineering Co Ltd (a Chinese Government-owned company), being the major contractor who accounted for over 75 per cent of these expenditures, were paid against the presentation of all relevant shipping documents. There was no single payment made through any Dubai company owned by us.”
DIL further explained that “all FX purchased in respect of our African Projects expansion were fully utilised for what they were meant for. The projects for which the FX was utilised are visible for everyone to see.
“It is on record that some of these projects were commissioned by Nigerian top-ranking government officials and in attendance were chief executives of various banks, captains of industries and presidents of the host-countries, supported by their senior government officials.”
Moreover, it stated that funds invested in its expansion project across African countries were legitimate capital investments in those countries and the repatriation of FX in the sum of $576 million so far has helped to boost foreign exchange earnings in Nigeria and stabilise the FX market.
Besides, DIL has “always funded the construction of her various plants from Interbank FX Market in line with the CBN directives and relevant periodic progress reports were submitted to the banks for onward submission to the Central Bank of Nigeria.”
