The Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of
Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami (SAN), has said there are corruption allegations
in the Central Bank of Nigeria’s foreign exchange allocation and transactions.
Malami added, on Wednesday, the fraud allegations were
“supported by
several documents.”
The PUNCH sighted a subtle query issued by Malami to the Governor of CBN, Mr.
Godwin Emefiele, demanding “prompt response” to the allegations.
Malami’s letter, dated February
6, 2017, and with reference number, HAGF/CBN/2017/VOL.1/1, was sighted with an
official, close to the legal unit of the apex bank.
The letter, in polite terms and
without giving any ultimatum, asked Emefiele to respond to the allegations “to
enable us to advise the Presidency and take appropriate measures.”
Titled ‘allegations of
racketeering in the Central Bank of Nigeria; disparity in allocation of foreign
exchange’, and addressed to Emefiele, the letter was delivered to the CBN
governor’s office on Monday.
The minister, in the letter, said
he became aware of the corruption allegations through several petitions.
Four major allegations contained
in Malami’s letter to Emefiele include alleged corruption in the apex bank’s
“foreign exchange allocation transactions.”
The second is “questionable
policy” in the apex bank’s allocation and sale of foreign currency to
Nigerians.
The third is the issue of
“arbitrary allotment of different exchange rates for same purposes” by the CBN.
The last is allocation of
conflicting foreign exchange rates by the CBN.
The letter partly read, “Some of
these petitions have been supported by several documents allegedly showing that
the central bank has implemented a questionable policy in its allocation and
sale of foreign currency to Nigerians.
“It is further alleged that this
arbitrary allotment of different exchange rates for same purposes at the same
time is being pursued as policy by the Central Bank of Nigeria. See attached
documents from Leadershipng publication.
“Also attached is a report of the
October 2016, allocation of conflicting foreign exchange rates by the central
bank.
“In view of these allegations of
corruption and arbitrary allocations of foreign exchange to a certain class of
persons, you are kindly requested to comment on these allegations to enable us
to advise the Presidency and take appropriate measures as may be dictated by
the circumstances of the case.”
Media reports, relying on the
document tiled ‘Bank utilisation report on 60:40 rule for October 2016’, which
was attached to Malami’s letter sent to the CBN governor, had raised
allegations of corruption and the implementation of questionable foreign
exchange allocation policy.
In October 2016, alone, as
revealed by the document, no pattern or template could be deciphered to have
been used in calculating the exchange rates.
The criteria used in selecting
the firms or sectors for which certain volume of foreign exchange was allocated
and at what rate could not be pinned to any template.
The 1,312-page document revealed
the names of various customers, their corresponding addresses, form numbers,
amount allocated to them (in United States dollars), the items or purposes, the
sector and the banks used for the month of October alone.
It shows how some companies and
individuals got foreign exchange in US dollars at the rates as low as low as
N0.61 to $1 while others got it in rates that were as high as N470 to $1.
For instance, an individual got
$4,327 at the rate of N23.34 to $1 through “credit card payment” for
“invisible” purpose and under “invisible sector”.
A bank also got $3,589.11 at the
rate of N3.19 to $1 also for “invisible” purposes and under “invisible” sector.
There was a transaction involving
sale of $66.72 at the rate of N0.62 to $1.
There was also a sale of $5.56 to
a company at the rate of N0.61 also for “invisible” purposes.
A particular transaction also
involved the sale of $570.8 at the rate N3.17.
In contrast, there was a company,
who purchased $1,462,480.83 at the rate of N425 to $1.
The document shows that individuals
and companies got foreign exchange for purposes ranging from importation, PTA,
school fees, “invisible”, family maintenance allowances, mortgage payments and
medical travel among others.
But the CBN had debunked the
allegations in a publication posted on its website on January 30, 2017.
The publication titled ‘CBN
clarifies alleged wrong FOREX purchase figures’, was signed by the apex bank’s
Acting Director, Corporate Communications, Mr. Isaac Okorafor.
The bank stated that it neither
allocated foreign exchange nor did it deal directly with bank customers.
Insisting that its forex policy
was transparent, the apex bank also said it was not responsible for fixing
FOREX rates for transactions by individuals or companies.
The statement read, “Following
media reports alleging irregularities in the
rates at which foreign exchange was
obtained by some individuals and companies from
different Deposit Money Banks under the new [60:40]
Foreign Exchange Policy by the Central Bank
of Nigeria, which prioritises FOREX sales
to manufacturers, agriculture, plant and machinery,
critical raw materials, among others, we
wish to make the following clarifications:
“The Central Bank
of Nigeria neither allocates foreign exchange nor
does it deal directly with bank customers;
“The CBN does not fix FOREX rates
for transactions by individuals or companies.
“In line with
our principle of transparency, we directed
DMBs to forward to us evidence of FOREX sale
to end users and to advertise same in
national dailies.
“Since the
introduction of the new FOREX Policy in
2016, we have published, monthly, the evidence
of sale from DMBs, as received from the banks
and without any alteration by us in
the spirit of transparency.
“We have
recently observed, however, that some DMBs forwarded
inaccurate data, which were erroneously published
and gave a wrong impression of disparate rates;
“The DMBs involved in providing
inaccurate data have since been issued queries
accordingly. Some have returned a response,
indicating that some of the figures were
related to formatting errors, which do not affect
the true rates of the affected transactions.
“As the
constitutionally authorised industry regulator,
mandated to manage the FOREX market, maintain
external reserves and to safeguard the
international value of the legal tender
currency, we wish to state unequivocally that
the CBN has a duty to perform and
would not indulge in acts capable of
discrediting the FOREX market.
“We therefore
wish to reiterate that the sale of
FOREX under the new policy is most
transparent and it is not intended to
benefit any individual or corporate body in
anyway.”
Punch
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