We Are Not Guilty Of Economic Sabotage, Says Dangote Group

Dangote Industries Limited (DIL) yesterday warned against linking the firm to any form of economic sabotage.

It gave the warning following claims, suggesting that the company is being probed for an alleged illegal foreign exchange deals and money laundering.

In a statement, DIL described the allegation as “spurious and a rehash of a similar report peddled out of malice by a competitor masquerading as a concerned Nigerian in 2016.”

 The statement, signed by the management of DIL, reemphasised that foreign exchange for its numerous projects were sourced strictly from Interbank Foreign Exchange market in compliance with the CBN approvals.

 For instance, DIL explained that in all its transactions, “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 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,” the statement noted.

 DIL explained its forex dealings thus: “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 the Presidents of the host countries supported by their Senior Government Officials.”

 The company further stated that funds invested in its expansion project across African countries are legitimate capital investments in those countries and the repatriation of FX in sum of $576 million so far has helped to boost foreign Exchange earnings in Nigeria and stabilise the FX Market. Besides, DIL emphasised that it had 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.

 ”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,” the DIL statement said, adding that “specifically, CBN gave us approvals between 2010 to 2018 to purchase FX totaling $3.755billion from the Interbank market for the funding of our various African Projects out of which we have utilised only 47.70 percent of the approvals in the total sum of N1.791billion.”