AbdulSamad Isyaku Rabiu, Executive Chairman of BUA Group (Dangote's main business rival), took an unusual step of writing a full page article in Business Day of Monday, 22 Feb 2016 claiming that the current naira free-fall is caused by a few greedy people, or more to the point, a particular person.
BUA Group is into the business of manufacturing of cement, sugar refinery, flour, edible oils, pasta and rice cultivation.
Abdulsamad Isyaku Rabiu:
Whilst the federal government is doing everything to protect the Naira, there are Nigerians – corporates and individuals alike who are grossly undermining the government’s position – sometimes with the aid of regulators – knowingly or unknowingly.
Whilst some manufacturers are experiencing extreme difficulty sourcing foreign exchange for legitimate business operations within Nigeria, others are getting forex to set up operations in other countries.
It is rather ironic that a similar competitor in the same industry, who incidentally is the market leader, is allocated huge amounts of Nigeria’s hard earned and scarce forex from the official market for its operations in Congo. I do not know if there is an official policy to that effect but I was baffled, as were numerous Nigerians, to learn through a publication of forex allocation returns by First Bank of Nigeria Limited in THISDAY Newspaper of Tuesday, February 16, 2016 (page 11) of that allocation, whilst other operators in the same industry have received far less or nothing at all during the same period for verifiable and viable investments within Nigeria.
t begs the question, “Were other plants by that operator across Africa built with Nigeria’s money?” How has that impacted the country’s economy in return? If this is true, then it needs to be checked, as we cannot have a situation where Nigerian industries are being shut down, workers are losing jobs daily and resources badly needed to develop our economy are being taken out of the country to grow other economies to the detriment of ours. If this transaction was done using “Form A” like the publication suggested, then it is just money that has gone out from the country, which can be rerouted into the country for larger profits.
Without doubt, there are many persons and corporate entities who are aware of the goings-on in the Nigerian forex market but are afraid to speak out because of the perception that those involved are too powerful but if no one brings these issues to the fore, there is absolutely no way we can progress
: http://www.osundefender.org/manufacturing-the-fx-situation-and-the-nigerian-economy-by-abdulsamad-rabiu/
Few days ago Dr Ifeanyi Ubah, CEO of Capital Oil took a rather unusual step of appearing on Channels TV on Sunday, 21/2/2016 to make a very bold claim that the current Naira slide is artificial, and is caused by a few individuals. He said that he "knows those behind the current foreign exchange crisis facing the nation and was ready to name them publicly".
He also staked his entire assets of N500b on his claim that he will expose the saboteurs, reverse the slide in 30 days and bring Naira back to 1$=N200. FG is yet to take up the offer. However, since these two
http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/02/i-ll-name-those-behind-forex-crisis-if-says-ubah/
http://www.authorityngr.com/2016/02/N200-PER-DOLLAR-PROPOSAL--Ifeanyi-Ubah-stakes-N500bn-assets/
Abdulsamad Rabiu spoke on Sunday, 21/2/16. The very next day, Ifeanyi Ubah spoke in same vein on Monday, 22/2/16.
Are these mere coincidences? is anybody thinking what I am thinking? Is anybody in Buhari's govt and economic team getting the message?
Both Abdulsamad Rabiu and Ifeanyi Ubah are seriously supporting Federal Govt policy not to devalue the Naira, whilst a powerful business men are secretly nudging FG to agree with IMF and devalue the Naira. Why? Who is benefiting from all these mess?
More importantly, which powerful individual or corporate entities are Abdulsamad Rabiu and Ifeanyi Ubah referring to, and even threatening to name? Nigerians wake up and shine your eyes oooooo!!
Meanwhile, in previous news, in January 2016 CBN Gov Emefiele visited Dangote's new refinery/petrochemical/fertilizer construction site at Lekki free trade zone and pledged that FGN will supply him all the dollars he needs for this private project at official rate of $1:N197, which is currently estimated at $10 billion. This represents 30% of our reserves.
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