Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, says the January visit by operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to the Lagos Head Office of the Dangote Group was intended to embarrass his company.
Dangote made this remark while speaking on Bloomberg TV on Monday in New York, USA.
Dangote explained that the operatives visited the office without engaging with anyone or making any arrests, suggesting their presence was solely to cause embarrassment.
“They told us to go back. They’re going to come to our office. And before we knew it, they were already in our office. They visited the office and they didn’t talk to anybody. They did not arrest anybody. They just came and left, just to register an embarrassment,” Dangote said.
He emphasized that despite the challenges, their operations remain “100 percent clean,” underscoring their vital contribution to Nigeria’s economy.
He also reaffirmed that his group of companies is the highest-paying organization in the country and contributes more to taxes than the banking sector.
“Our company pays in 2023 more taxes than the entire banking industry. That’s why whatever we do—because we know we are up there—whether it’s a new government or whatever happened, we are the people to be called. That’s why our behavior has to be 100 percent clean,” Dangote added.
He also mentioned that his company is open to providing documents or information to any authority whenever it’s needed.
Backstory
In January, officials of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) stormed the office of Dangote Group headquarters as part of an investigation into forex allocation in the past years.
The visit by the anti-graft commission to the company was part of a probe into alleged preferential allocations of forex to the Dangote Group and 51 other companies under the Emefiele-led Central Bank of Nigeria.
However, the Dangote Group later said in a statement that the commission did not provide enough time to get documents of forex allocation in the past ten years and it hopes to send them in batches before the raid.
“We don’t know why they (EFCC officials) came to our office again; we had earlier been invited to the office of the EFCC. As such, the Dangote officials took along all the documents and submitted them. We don’t know why they eventually decided to visit our office again.
“The question we are asking is what did they come to take from our office when we had honoured their invitation? They left with empty hands because all the documents they wanted from us had been taken to them. The same EFCC that came to our office is the one giving information to the media that we are being investigated,” the statement read.
Also, the Dangote group stated it is collaborating with the EFCC in the ongoing investigation which also includes dozens of other companies across the country.
