Skip to main content

MONEY TRANSFER FRAUD!!!!!



COLLUSION AMONG CBN,COMMERCIAL BANKS,WESTERN UNION,MONEYGRAM,ETC TO KILL THE NAIRA INSTALMENTALLY 🤔!!!

By Chief Anthony Ani,FCA,Former Minister Of Finance.

"A MATTER OF NATIONAL EMERGENCY DEMANDING OUR DEAR PRESIDENT BUHARI'S URGENT ACTION!

"RE: $BILLION DIASPORA REMITTANCES: WHERE ARE THE  DOLLARS?"

The above question was posed in an article in The PUNCH newspaper edition of September 9, 2019, by columnist Henry Boyo.

I have been a daily reader of The PUNCH for the past 10 years and I have not yet, read any comments from anyone on this question.

There is a need to discuss this issue, as it appears that there is massive foreign exchange laundering going on in our banks.

As the architect of the Diaspora remittances in 1996, I am naturally concerned at the abuses disclosed by Boyo.

When in 1995, we at the Ministry of Finance reviewed the country’s sources of foreign revenues, we found out that nothing was coming in from Nigerians in the Diaspora, whereas India and Jamaica were living on foreign exchange from their citizens abroad.

When I enquired why Western Union and MoneyGram could not receive money from Nigerians abroad, I was told that it was due to our tax laws.

As a Chartered Accountant student in 1962, I studied Comparative Commonwealth Taxation in Nigeria, Jamaica and the UK, and I found out that the tax laws of these countries had the same wordings on imposition of tax (“tax is imposed on income accruing in, derived from or brought into”).

The question then to me was why income “brought into” India was not taxed in India? On enquiry, I found that India had modified its tax laws to accommodate its citizens living abroad who wanted to send money in foreign exchange to India.

In 1996, I had proposed (and it was accepted by the Federal Executive Council) in a new law, regarding Nigerians repatriating remuneration from abroad, Nigerians repatriating dividends, royalties, fees, commissions from foreign countries receipts by authors, sportsmen/women, musicians, play writers, artist, etc.

Such income repatriated into Nigeria in foreign currency was 100 per cent exempted from tax, provided the foreign currency was repatriated through a domiciliary account with a Nigerian bank!

With the promulgation of this law, First Bank Nigeria Ltd brought in Western Union in August 1996 while the USA(UBA) brought in MoneyGram a few weeks later.

In 1996, Nigerians abroad repatriated about $4.5bn (about 50 per cent of our gross revenue from oil) and we ensured that these amounts were brought into Nigeria, intact, in foreign exchange.

The receipts increased exponentially in 1997 and 1998 and we also made sure that they were received in Nigeria, in foreign currency.

The receipts helped to stabilise our exchange rate mechanism at N82 to a dollar, throughout my tenure as the Minister of Finance, to the extent that the naira was internally convertible currency.

Some years ago, on my visit to London, I went to Western Union office, at Marble Arch, to test by remitting £500 to my son in Nigeria. 

I first had to convert the money to dollars and to my surprise, Western Union gave me a quote in naira to be claimed by my son. 

I refused their naira equivalent and insisted that my son must be paid in dollars.

 It was obvious to me that there was an arrangement between our Nigerian banks and Western Union/MoneyGram, whereby the former pays from their excess naira liquidity while the later retains the dollars abroad.

In other words, the dollar remittance is retained abroad and is laundered by the Nigerian banks. This is definitely against the law which provide that all remittances must be brought into Nigeria in foreign currency via domiciliary account.

If by chance, as in my case, the dollar is remitted into Nigeria, the Central Bank of Nigeria on August 14, 2014, introduced the Outward Money Transfer Service and authorised the same MoneyGram and Western Union to re-export, in tranches of $5,000 per transaction, to Nigerians abroad, on payment of the naira equivalent at the CBN rate of exchange. 

Thus, Nigeria is the only country in the world re-exporting its remittances.

It is relevant to note that the naira is not a convertible currency but remittances which are meant to stabilise our exchange rates are re-exported! 

There is something wrong at our Central Bank.

 It could be that we have imported the mentality of commercial banking into the CBN. We now need real central bankers to govern our Central Bank.

We have central bankers amongst those in the CBN, and we also have central bankers amongst the members of the Nigerian Economic Society or, alternatively, indeed, we can even go outside Nigeria to employ central bankers.

The fact is that the Diaspora remittances are not retained in Nigeria and there is a collaboration between the CBN, Nigerian banks and Western Union/MoneyGram; in such an event, government must investigate the infraction, punish the money launders, and recover all past Diaspora remittances retained abroad!

The Outbound Money Transfer Services must be stopped and all our remittances retained for naira stability and the nation’s development."
October 8th,2019.

 Etubom Anthony Ani is a former Minister of Finance,1993-1998.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

IGBO DAUGHTERS (WOMEN) NOW TO INHERIT WILLS. UKEJE V. UKEJE

In Igbo Customary Law, succession and inheritance are taken for granted as enuring by the principle of primogeniture. In other words, the eldest male child (Okpala or Diokpa) of the intestate has a sole claim to the estate of the deceased. Hence, female children do not inherit their deceased parents. Against this backdrop, a suit arose at a Lagos State High Court. It was instituted by one of the daughters of the deceased Lazarus Ogbonnaya Ukeje, who challenged the grant of Letters of Administration to her mother (and widow of the deceased) and her brother to her exclusion. She maintained that being a child of the deceased, the grant was discriminatory having offended section 42 (2) of the 1999 Constitution. Appealing against the decision of the Lagos High Court that found in favour of the Claimant, the Defendants/Appellants cited Igbo Customary Law as the basis for which she was disinherited. The Court of Appeal affirmed the ruling of the lower court. Further dissatisfied, the Appellan...

How to achieve unbelievable heights.

It is indeed common knowledge that everyone wants to be successful, live their dreams and mentain the growth but what remains the challenge is that they do not know what path to follow and are also faced with the challenge  of wrong choices resulting from bad decisions. It is also a reality that we have desires and wants but not everyone gets what they aspire. An example is the Hollywood where a chunk of people visit every day to live and fulfill their dreams and offcourse not everyone can live in Hollywood because Hollywood won't contain all that yearn to go there, In order to succeed we have to therefore learn what others do differently that enabled them have that good life, the enabled them be viewed different, that enabled them succeed. Mentors have the power: In order to transform your life, it is important that you have a mentor, even more than one if you aspirations in some other field(s). There is nothing you can achieve in life without following the footsteps of others,...

Apply: TED Fellows Program 2018. Fully-funded to Attend Conference in Vancouver, Canada

Applications are on for one of the two TED Fellows Programme’s two application cycles: TED Fellowships.  Application Timelines:  Opening date: 18th July 2017Closing date: 10th September, 2017 Offered annually?  Biannual Eligible Countries:  Global To be taken at (country):   Vancouver,   Canada About the Award:  The TEDGlobal Fellowships is designed to bring together young trailblazers from a variety of fields who have shown unusual accomplishment and courage. Instead of business people, professionals, policy wonks and government officials,  the TED Fellows program   focuses on  doers, makers, inventors, advocates, filmmakers and photographers, musicians and artists, scientists, entrepreneurs, NGO heads, and human rights activists. Twenty fellows will be selected to attend the TED Global conference to be held Aug. 27 to 30, 2017. Participants will also have the opportunity to attend pre-conference progra...