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Missing N500bn: Probe CBN, Falana, Others Tell PMB

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Missing N500bn: Probe CBN, Falana, Others Tell PMB
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The human rights lawyer, Mr Femi Falana (SAN),  Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and the Social Democratic Party (SDP) have called on PMB to ensure that the allegation of missing N500bn in the Central Bank of Nigeria is thoroughly investigated.
Also, the Centre for Anti-Corruption and Open Leadership in a separate statement, has requested an independent probe into claims of financial fraud.
These calls followed a leaked audio tape wherein the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, claimed N500bn was missing.
In the leaked tape, which was published by Sahara Reporters, Emefiele, his Deputy, Edward Adamu; and the Director for Finance, Dayo Arowosegbe; including one of the Special Advisers to the CBN Governor, Emmanuel Ukeje,  were caught on tape discussing how to cover up the loss of over N500bn stolen from the CBN in a private investment that failed.
In one of the clips, the CBN governor was heard saying the Ministry of Finance, as well as the National Assembly, must not know about the development.
In another part of the audio clip, N2bn was said to have been earmarked for the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission for no clear reason.
However, the CBN had claimed that no N500bn was missing in its accounts.
Speaking with one of our correspondents on the development, Falana said the rebuttal by the CBN was not sufficient enough to exonerate the CBN governor.
He said, “Having carefully listened to the recorded telephone conversation of the governor and top management staff of the CBN, it is indubitably clear that the sum of N500bn is missing from the CBN.
“The discussions clearly centred on how to cover up the monumental fraud including cooking up the books. It was even suggested that N2bn be set aside to compromise the EFCC. In view of the confirmation of the missing N500bn and the desperate moves to cover it up, President Buhari should set up a panel of enquiry to probe the scandal.
“The press statement of the CBN management denying the fraud should be treated with disdain as it is a dubious attempt to play on the collective intelligence of the Nigerian people.”
The anti-corruption crusader said this was not the first time that monies would go missing from the CBN.
He recalled how a former CBN Governor, Prof Chukwuma Soludo, questionably invested $7bn in 14 unnamed banks with no consequence, an allegation which Soludo denied.
Falana added, “The CBN has a penchant for covering up the criminal diversion of huge public funds. The bank covered up the sum of $12.4bn in the dedicated accounts withdrawn from 1988-1993 by military President, Gen Ibrahim Babangida.
“In the same vein, CBN covered up the $7bn withdrawn by Ex-Gov of CBN, Prof Charles Soludo, and purportedly placed as deposit in some unnamed banks. The Buhari regime which claims to be fighting corruption must not allow the CBN to cover up the missing N500bn.”
The Peoples Democratic Party and the Social Democratic Party on their own part said the allegation was too weighty to be ignored by the Federal Government and the National Assembly.
The National Chairman of the PDP, Prince Uche Secondus, who spoke with one of our correspondents, said, “The allegation is too weighty to be ignored. I think I understand why the Federal Government is foot-dragging. The money could have been used for election and all that.
“But I want to appeal to the National Assembly to rise to the occasion and do something about it. We cannot just close our eyes and allow that to go under the carpet.”
Also, the SDP National Publicity, Secretary, Alfa Mohammed said, “It is unfortunate that this kind of allegation about corruption is coming up under an administration that claims to be fighting corruption.
“Some whistleblowers have come up, suggesting that there is corruption in the CBN. This suggests that there is something negative fishing in the apex bank.
“We are, therefore, demanding that President Muhammadu Buhari should constitute a probe panel on this matter without further delay.”
The Executive Chairman, CACOL, Mr Debo Adeniran, in a statement by the group’s Coordinator, Media and Publications, Adegboyega Otunuga, said, “Though, the CBN, through one Issac Okorafor, its Director, Corporate Communications, confirmed the authenticity of the ‘selective conversation,’ which it claimed was just a routine ‘conversations among senior management of many agencies and should not be misconstrued as anything but that’, there are threads of conversation in the tape that simply do not tally with such a ‘hand waive ’ of the CBN management.”
In the same vein, a former Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress, Timi Frank, equally asked the Senate to withhold the confirmation of Emefiele for the second term over the leaked audio exposing the missing N500bn under his watch.
Frank said it would amount to a disservice to the nation if the Red Chamber went ahead on Emefiele’s confirmation without the public knowing how such a huge of amount of money disappeared from the treasury.
However, the African Democratic Congress described the allegation as a distraction.
The party’s National Publicity Secretary, Yemi Kolapo, said while the initial report on the alleged missing money appeared damning, she did not feel much energy should be dissipated on it.
Meanwhile, the Lead Director, Centre for Social Justice, Eze Onyekpere, said that the leaked audio of the conversation among the CBN Governor and some senior officials might not provide a sufficient ground for the matter to be investigated.
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Agba Leads Govt Delegation to South Korea on Bilateral Cooperation

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By Tony Obiechina, Abuja 

Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Prince Clem Ikanade Agba, is at the head of a Nigerian government’s delegation to Seoul, South Korea, for a week-long mission for strategic dialogues with the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) and Korea-Africa Foundation (KAF).

The visit is intended to, among other purposes, forge new frontiers of mutual cooperation between the countries and deepen existing bilateral ties.

As a prelude to the series of meetings and dialogue sessions, Agba met with the Nigerian Ambassador to South Korea, Ali Mohammed Magashi, with top officials in the Embassy, and discussed cross-cutting  issues bordering on the status of the bilateral relations between Nigeria and South Korea.

Issues that featured during the discussions included outstanding Agreements such as the Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement; Labour; Avoidance of Double Taxation to be concluded to further boost the investment climate and the volume of trade of USD 2 billion in 2021 and the way forward.

The Minister took the opportunity of the meeting to shed light  on the Nigeria’s National Development Plan 2021- 2025 and the investment opportunities for the South Korean private investors in key sectors  such as  Agriculture, Manufacturing, ICT, Oil and Gas (midstream) to accelerate the country’s  economic growth that is already diversified.

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He urged the ambassador to canvass for investments in the identified sectors in pursuance of Nigeria’s unwavering effort at ensuring and consolidating its concentric diversification of the national economy.

At the meeting with the President of the 5-year-old Korea-Africa Foundation,  Mr Lyeo Woon-Ki, the minister applauded the purpose of establishing the Foundation as an affiliate of the South Korean’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which is to, among other things, foster business and cultural cooperation between the country and African continent as well as promote genuine partnership in political and  academic spheres.

He noted that South Korea had a vibrant private sector and gave insight into the plan envisaged for the sector in the NDP 2021-2025 for investment in Nigeria.

The minister allayed the fears expressed by the Foundation President regarding doing business in Nigeria and apprised him of the immigration and customs reforms in place and the country’s upward leap, by 20 points, in the ease of doing business ranking.

He also paid a courtesy visit to the Acting President of Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), Mr. Youn-Young Lee. 

As a grant aid provider under the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the minister lauded the “excellent cordial relationship” between the Federal Government of Nigeria and KOICA since it began operations in 2008.

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He thanked the President of the Republic of South Korea, His Excellency, Yoon Suk Yeol, the Government and people of South Korea for the prestigious National Award of Diplomatic Service Merit (Heungin Medal) recently awarded to him in Abuja as first recipient in Africa.

Agba said the several grant aids and technical cooperation projects implemented by the Agency had been impactful.

He acknowledged the various KOICA-supported capacity-building training extended to the Nigerian government officials in several fields of human endeavours as well as technical cooperation.

The training, according to him, “covers short-term, long-term, Masters and Postgraduate scholarship programmes and in-country training programme.”

The minister noted the future areas of cooperation mentioned by the KOICA President and confirmed their alignment with Nigeria’s priorities as encapsulated in the NDP 2021-2025.

Meanwhile, the Minister, consequent upon receiving a report about a Nigerian family who lost four children in domestic fire that razed their apartment in Ansan Danwon, on the outskirts of Seoul, decided to pay the family and the Nigerian community in Ansan Danwon a condolence visit.

The visit happened on Monday, March 27, 2023, in company with the Nigerian Ambassador to South Korea.

They condoled with the Nigerian family of seven, Mr. Felix Nwafor, who lost four children (2 boys and 2 girls) to an inferno that occurred in the early hours of that day.  The couple and a two-year old daughter who survived are receiving medical attention at a Korean Hospital in the area.

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Dangote Lists N300bn Bonds, Largest Ever on NGX, FMDQ

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Dangote Industries Limited (DIL) has formally listed its N300 billion Series 1 and 2 bonds issued under the Dangote Industries Funding Plc during a grand listing ceremony at both the FMDQ and the Nigeria Exchange Limited (NGX) in Lagos. 

Olakunle Alake, Group Managing Director of Dangote Industries Limited told investors during the listing ceremony that the bonds were primarily for part-financing the Group’s 650,000 bpd refinery project.

 

He explained that the decision of the Company to issue bonds to raise the required capital for part-financing the refinery project was to encourage the participation of  Nigerians in the financing  of the project.

  He noted that the bonds remains the largest aggregate local currency bond issuance within a calendar year by any corporate organization in the history of the capital markets. . 

Mr. Alake noted that following very rigorous internal assessment, the management concluded that tapping the local capital markets was inevitable, considering the sheer scale of the project being developed, as well as the existing market volatility. 

He said that while the Dangote Group is not new at raising funds in the local capital markets, being a first-time issuer at the holding company level presented a fresh challenge for the Company.  However, the challenge was one the management was willing to embrace to ensure the desired outcome was achieved. 

According to him: “Today, we are delighted to have successfully completed the largest aggregate local currency bond issuance by a corporate in the Nigerian capital markets within a calendar year. The proceeds from the Series 1 and 2 bond issuances were dedicated to part-financing the Dangote Petroleum Refinery Project which is the initiative by the Group to establish an Integrated Petrochemical Complex, and the largest Single Train Petroleum Refinery in the World.” 

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Alake recalled that the DIL recorded another first through the N187 billion series 1 bonds (under the N300 billion programme), being the largest corporate bond ever issued in the history of the Nigerian capital markets and the management was pleased to have set the remarkable milestones, showcasing the depth, resilience and liquidity of the domestic capital markets, whilst reflecting the strong credit quality of the issuer, despite the current global market volatility. 

He said: “The bonds issuances were well received by the market and recorded participation from a wide range of investors including domestic pension funds, asset managers, insurance companies, and high net-worth investors. 

Indeed, the reception of the market was buoyed by the strategic importance of the project and its expected impact on the Nigerian economy. Overall, we strongly believe the success of the Series 1 and 2 bond issuances further demonstrates investor confidence in our credit story and the appreciation of the work done by the Group across several key sectors that are crucial to the development of Nigeria and the continent at large.” 

Alake pointed out that his Company was not new in the business of listing securities on NGX. “We are therefore conversant with all the listing requirements and promise to be prompt and up to date in that regard.  We count on the cooperation and support of NGX and the stockbrokers to meet this important investors’ objective.” 

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The DIL Group Managing Director assured that the company would remain resolute in the Nigerian and African story and continue to demonstrate commitment, as one of the foremost pan-African conglomerates, through investments in projects and initiatives that directly improve the quality of lives of Nigerians. “Indeed, these are very exciting times for us as a business, and so we would continue to welcome opportunities to work with stakeholders in the domestic capital markets towards accelerating the economic activities across Africa, whilst maximizing stakeholder returns. 

Also speaking at the event, the lead Issuing House for series 1 of the bonds and the Chief Executive Officer, of Standard Chartered Capital & Advisory Nigeria Limited, Mrs. Yemisi Deji-Bejide, expressed appreciation of her organization to the management of the DIL for reposing so much confidence in Standard Chartered by entrusting it with the responsibility. 

She said: “Every time we gather at FMDQ for the listing ceremony of an issuance by the Dangote Group, it is always a record milestone. Early in 2022, we issued a bond for Dangote Cement which was the largest corporate bond issuance at the time,  and little did we know that a few months down the line, the Group will comfortably break that record. 

Mrs. Deji-Bejide described the success of the transaction as a strong testament to the fact that Investors strongly believe in Dangote Group’s credit story and are willing to continue to support the growth of the business. Also, she said it demonstrated the depth of the Nigerian capital markets and resilience, despite all the volatility in the global markets and the macro headwinds.

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“Lastly and most importantly, investors are keen to support impactful infrastructure projects in Nigeria, as the proceeds of the bond are being used to fund the largest single train refinery in the world”, Mrs. Deji-Bejide added. 

Meanwhile, at the Nigeria Exchange Limited where the symbolic gong ceremony was held to commemorate the listing, the Group Managing Director for DIL, Mr. Alake, who was represented by the DIL Group Chief Finance Officer , Mallam Mustapha Ibrahim thanked the investor community for their support for the transaction as well as our various advisors and stakeholders. 

He also commended the Nigeria Exchange Limited (NGX) for its unwavering support throughout this entire process of issuing and listing the bonds as well as their continued commitment towards deepening the Nigerian capital markets.

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Zenith Bank Records 24% Growth in Gross Earnings 2022

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Zenith Bank Plc has announced its audited results for the year ending December 31, 2022, achieving an impressive double-digit growth of 24% in gross earnings from NGN765.6 billion reported in the previous year to NGN945.5 billion in 2022. This is despite the persistent challenging macroeconomic environment and headwinds.

According to the audited financial results for the 2022 financial year presented to the Nigerian Exchange (NGX), the double-digit growth in gross earnings was driven by a 26% year-on-year (YoY) growth in interest income from NGN427.

6 billion to N540.2 billion and a 23%year-on-year (YoY) growth in non-interest income from NGN309 billion to NGN381 billion.
Profit before tax also grew by 2% from NGN280.
4 billion to NGN284.7 billion in the current year. The increase in profit before tax was due to the significant growth in all the income lines.

Impairments grew by 107% from NGN59.9 billion to NGN124.2 billion, while interest expense grew 63% YoY from N106.8 billion to N173.5 billion, respectively. The impairment growth, which also resulted in an increase in the cost of risk (from 1.9% in 2021 to 3.3% in the current year), was due to the impact of Ghana’s sovereign debt restructuring programme. The growth in interest expense increased the cost of funds from 1.5% in 2021 to 1.9% in 2022 due to hikes in interest rates globally.

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Customer deposits increased by 39%, growing from NGN6.47 trillion in the previous year to NGN8.98 trillion in the current year. The growth in customer deposits came from all products and deposit segments (corporate and retail), thus consolidating the bank’s market leadership and indicating customers’ trust.

The continued elevated yield environment positively impacted the bank’s Net-Interest-Margin (NIM), which grew from 6.7% to 7.2% due to an effective repricing of interest-bearing assets. Operating expenses grew by 17% YoY, but growth remains below the inflation rate. Total assets increased by 30%, growing from NGN9.45 trillion in 2021 to NGN12.29 trillion, mainly driven by growth in customer deposits. With the steady and continued recovery in economic activities, the Group prudently grew its gross loans by 20%, from NGN3.5 trillion in 2021 to NGN4.1 trillion in 2022, which increased the Non-Performing Loan (NPL) ratio modestly from 4.2% to 4.3% YoY. The capital adequacy ratio decreased from 21% to 19%, while the liquidity ratio improved from 71.2% to 75%. Both prudential ratios are well above regulatory thresholds.

In 2023, the Group intends to expand its frontiers as it also reorganises into a holding company structure, adding new verticals to its businesses and growing in all its chosen markets, both locally and internationally.

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As a testament to its commitment to shareholders, the bank has announced a proposed final dividend payout of N2.90 per share, bringing the total dividend to N3.20 per share.

In recognition of its track record of excellent performances, Zenith Bank was recognised as the Number One Bank in Nigeria by Tier-1 Capital, for the 13th consecutive year, in the 2022 Top 1000 World Banks Ranking published by The Banker Magazine; Bank of the Year (Nigeria) in The Banker’s Bank of the Year Awards 2020 and 2022; Best Bank in Nigeria, for three consecutive years from 2020 to 2022, in the Global Finance World’s Best Banks Awards; Best Commercial Bank, Nigeria 2021 and 2022 in the World Finance Banking Awards; Best Corporate Governance Bank, Nigeria in the World Finance Corporate Governance Awards 2022; Best in Corporate Governance’ Financial Services’ Africa, for three consecutive years from 2020 to 2022, by the Ethical Boardroom; Best Commercial Bank, Nigeria and Best Innovation In Retail Banking, Nigeria in the International Banker 2022 Banking Awards. Also, the bank emerged as the Most Valuable Banking Brand in Nigeria in the Banker Magazine Top 500 Banking Brands 2020 and 2021, and Retail Bank of the year, for three consecutive years from 2020 to 2022, at the BusinessDay Banks and Other Financial Institutions (BAFI) Awards. Similarly, Zenith Bank was named as Bank of the Decade (People’s Choice) at the ThisDay Awards 2020, Most Innovative Bank of the Year 2019 by Tribune Newspaper, Bank of the Year 2020 by Independent Newspaper, Bank of the Year 2021 by Champion Newspaper, Bank of the Year 2022 by New Telegraph Newspaper, and Most Responsible Organisation in Africa 2021 by SERAS Awards.

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