Economic Sabotage: BUA Group Is Blackmailing Us

By Dangote Industries Ltd

The  attention of the Management of Dangote Industries Limited has been drawn to an unfounded allegation making the rounds in some online news media suggesting that the Company is being probed over alleged illegal foreign exchange deals and money laundering running to $3.4billion allegedly perpetrated by the Central Bank of Nigeria under the leadership of Mr. Godwin Emefiele over the years.

As an organization, it is not in our custom to respond to any spurious allegation, but to the fact that this is a rehash of a similar report peddled out of malice by a competitor masquerading as a concerned Nigerian in 2016, we are therefore constrained to provide context to this issue.

The reporting of this spurious foreign exchange allegations by some media houses was turned down by credible traditional and online news media until it was featured as a paid advertorial in two Nigerian Newspapers, BusinessDay and Leadership (published March 14, 2016) titled ACTS OF ECONOMIC SABOTAGE BY DANGOTE CEMENT, published in the name of one David Osa Ighalo, from Benin, Edo State It is saddening to note that this publication of Monday, March 14, 2016 in BusinessDay and Leadership newspapers wherein the author alleged that “monies went from the company in question to other sister Dangote companies outside Nigeria.

It is estimated that almost USD3billion-if not more, has been taken out of Nigeria through these means. This encourages round tripping and in effect money laundering since there is no proper documentation”, has recently been 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.

Different blogs and social media platforms have been carrying variants of this falsehood to the detriment of our corporate reputation.

The 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 apologized 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 advertorials were sponsored and paid for by Messrs. BUA Group (see appendix 1A AND 18).

Furthermore, in 2016, we wrote to the Department of State Services (DSS) copying the Governor of Central Bank Nigeria (CBN) on these spurious allegations in line with our good corporate governance practices and transparency which is one of the cardinal principles of our core values.

For the benefit of the new unsuspecting media recruits into the ill-fated voyage and the understanding of the general public, we state as follows: Dangote Industries Limited is a reputable global brand and responsible corporate citizen, operating in multiple jurisdictions conducting its business in line with global best corporate governance practices, extant laws and regulations, as it has done over the years.

We embarked on massive expansions of our business across Africa which led to the construction of cement plants; and for the avoidance of doubt, Senegal, Ethiopia, Zambia, Tanzania, Cameroon, South Africa, Congo Brazzaville, Sierra Leone and Ghana were completed and commissioned while construction works in other African countries are nearing completionIn compliance with regulatory requirements, we, like other Nigerian companies and banks with investment in subsidiaries in and outside African countries, requested our Authorized Dealers to seek CBN approval to source FX locally to enable us fund the construction and establishment of the cement plants outside Nigeria.

We secured CBN approval to source FX specifically from Interbank Market to fund the construction of these plants and this has always been complied with. Specifically, CBN gave us approvals between 2010 to 2018 to purchase FX totaling USD3.755bition from the Interbank market for the funding of our various African Projects out of which we have utilized only 47.70% of the approvals in the total sum of N1.791billion.

We wish to reemphasize that foreign exchange for these projects were sourced strictly from Interbank Foreign Exchange market in compliance with the CBN approvals and CBN press release dated February 18, 2015. (See appendix 4)In all these transactions, Letters of Credit were established for the construction of the Plants and for the purchase of heavy equipment and spares required for the commissioning and take-off of the Cement plants.

The terms and conditions for payments on the transactions were dearly spelt out in the Letters of Credit instruments and in line with International Chamber of Commerce- Universal Customs & Practice for Documentation Credit – UCP 600. 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 expenditure were paid against the presentation of all relevant shipping documents.

There was no single payment that was made through any Dubai company owned by us.We wish to state that all FX purchased in respect of our African Projects expansion were fully utilized for what they were meant for.

The projects for which the FX were utilized 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 the Presidents of the host countries supported by their Senior Government Officials.

The commissioning events of these projects were well documented and covered by both local and international media. There are also print and electronic copies of the commissioning ceremonies as a further testimony to the judicious utilization of the funds.We have recorded tremendous success stories in all our pan-African cement plants by way of Foreign Exchange repatriation of USD576,008,672.41 through various banks in Nigeria, (See appendix 5), inclusive of USD111,968,109.38 Cash Swap arrangement between Dangote Cement Pic and Ethiopian Airlines which was approved at an official exchange rate by Central Bank Nigeria (CBN) and National Bank of Ethiopia, thus saving the same amount that would have been paid by the CBN.

Furthermore, we wish to state our position as follows:1. Funds invested in our expansion project across African countries are legitimate capital investments in those countries and the repatriation of FX in sum of USD576 million so far helps to boost foreign Exchange earnings in Nigeria and stabilize the FX Market. All things considered, this positive trend will continue.

2. We have always funded the construction of these plants from Interbank FX Market in line with the CBN directives and relevantperiodic progress reports were submitted to the banks for onward submission to the Central Bank of Nigeria.

3. The regulations of the host countries require in most cases that payment to some local vendors, contractors and supplies are done locally for regulatory and tax purposes. Subsequently, funds for pre-operational expenses and purchase of other local construction materials are transferred to our Project Accounts in the host countries for payment to vendors in line with the countries regulations. All these transactions were well documented and approved. This has enabled us repatriate FX into Nigeria. All the payments made in respect of our various African Projects can be further verified, having been audited over the years by our auditors, Messrs Deloitte & Touche and KPMG in course of their statutory audits

.4. We remain the highest employer of labour in Nigeria outside the Government, as well as the highest tax paying Company inNigeria. Given these milestones, we cannot afford to engage in any unscrupulous and unprofessional conduct that could tamishour hard-earned reputation.As a serious and focused Group, we have invested more than any local and international investor in Nigeria. Our books are open for scrutiny by relevant Government Regulators. We believe in Nigeria, and we believe in Africa.

We assure our various stakeholders that these allegations are baseless, malicious and unfounded. This publication attests to our openness and transparency in the conduct of all our businesses and operations.