VenturesNow

Nigeria: Anti-graft agency EFCC raids Dangote offices

Published

4 months ago

January 5, 2024

Nigeria’s anti-graft agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), has carried out a raid on the headquarters of Dangote Industries Limited in Ikoyi, Lagos, amidst an ongoing investigation of forex management by the Central Bank of Nigeria under former governor, Godwin Emefiele.

The Dangote Group, owned by billionaire Aliko Dangote, and 51 other companies are the subject of an investigation by the anti-graft commission into purported preferential forex allocations under the Emefiele-led CBN. The anti-graft agents were present at the Dangote offices, according to two high-ranking EFCC officials, though they would not comment on why.

Nigeria is currently looking for more investments to help boost its economy which is struggling partly due to the foreign exchange crisis largely between 2015-2023, an era which saw the country’s currency, Naira, fall into one of the worst-performing currencies in the world.

As of June 15, the country’s gross foreign exchange reserves were $34.62 billion. However, as of December 1, 2023, the foreign exchange reserves decreased to $32.97 billion, based on data from the CBN.

The country maintained several exchange rates up until June 2023, which analysts claimed was a factor in market volatility, fluctuations, and distortions in the allocation of foreign exchange. The government has sought to stabilize the economy with two major policy actions: the removal of the fiscal bleeding in petrol subsidies and the unification of the exchange rate.

One of the officials said, “I can confirm that our men are there, but I can’t comment on the reason for their presence there.”

According to sources, the anti-graft commission had previously written to the 52 businesses, asking them to submit documentation proving how they had allocated and used foreign currency that had been sold to them at official rates over the previous ten years.

Forms A and M, which described the forex allocations made to the companies between 2014 and June 2023, were requested by the EFCC from the firms.

The last eight years have seen an audit of Nigeria’s financial and fiscal status. The apex bank under Emefiele is accused of depositing public funds in foreign currencies in as many as 593 bank accounts in the US, the UK, and China without the board of directors’ and the CBN Investment Committee’s consent, according to recent findings by Jim Obazee, Special Investigator on the CBN and Related Entities.

Related Topics:Central Bank of Nigeria Dangote EFCC Featured Foreign exchange Nigeria

Click to comment

VenturesNow

World Bank grants Malawi $57.6 million for food crisis

Published

1 hour ago

April 27, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

As a response to its food crisis, the World Bank said on Friday that it would give Malawi $57.6 million in “quick release” grants.

“This support comes in the context of the severe food crisis the country is suffering due to El Niño conditions in the wider southern Africa region,” the World Bank said in a statement.

“A series of intense disaster events over the last few years has left almost no time for the country to recover and has resulted in a severe erosion of food security at the national level.”

Malawi is one of the least developed countries in the world. It is ranked 170 out of 187 countries in the 2010 Human Development Index. Almost 16 million people live there, and 90% of them make less than $2 a day. That’s 53% of the total population.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) says that 46,000 children in Malawi are seriously malnourished. In 2023, UNICEF said that more than 500,000 Malawian children were at risk of not getting enough food.

Now, Malawi has a lot of programs in place to deal with things like poverty, and climate change, and to make the business and agriculture more diverse.

VenturesNow

Nigerian oil regulator implements regional fuel standards

Published

1 day ago

April 26, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

Nigeria’s oil authority has clarified that the recent changes to diesel fuel sulphur content standards are part of a regional effort to make things more uniform and are not meant to loosen rules for local refineries.

A report from S&P Global last week said that the West African fuel market had changed a lot after Nigeria raised the maximum diesel sulphur content from 200 parts per million (ppm) to around 650 ppm. This caused worries that the country might be lowering its standards to allow diesel made in Nigeria that is higher than the 200 ppm limit.

The Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), on the other hand, said it was only following a 2020 decision by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) that all of the regions had to slowly switch to better fuels.

Fuels that have a lot of sulfur can hurt engines and make the air dirty. As of right now, the ECOWAS rule lets locally-made fuel have more sulfur until January 2025. After that, a standard of less than 5 parts per million will be used for all oil, whether it is refined in West Africa or brought in from another country.

Farouk Ahmed, the head of the NMDPRA, told Reuters that the new limits are in line with ECOWAS’s choice to require stricter fuel specifications. The new rules will go into effect in January 2021 for non-ECOWAS imports and January 2025 for ECOWAS refineries.

“We are merely implementing the ECOWAS decision adopted in 2020,” Ahmed said.

“So a local refinery with a 650 ppm sulphur in its product is permissible and safe under the ECOWAS rule until January next year where a uniform standard would apply to both the locally refined and imported products outside West Africa”, Ahmed said.

Ahmed said that importers were told that the amount of sulphur allowed was going down, from 300 parts per million in February to 200 parts per million this month. This was done long before the huge Dangote refinery started providing diesel.

Diesel with a sulphur level of between 1,500 ppm and 3,000 ppm could be brought in by importers before.

The switch to cleaner fuels is in line with efforts to protect the environment around the world and makes sure that all area refiners have the same chances.

Nigeria recently had its worst blackout in decades because of a problem with its energy supply. The high cost of alternative energy sources has been a huge problem for both businesses and individuals, with the price of diesel being the most affordable choice for businesses.