Dangote Industries has issued a public statement to ease the concerns of stakeholders and investors following the visit of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to its head office in Lagos.
The group explained that a letter was received from the EFCC on December 6, last year to request for all the allocations of foreign exchange to the conglomerate by the Central Bank of Nigeria covering the period between 2014 to date.
It further explained that the visit by Nigeria’s anti-graft agency was not restricted to the Dangote Management but also included others.
“We understand similar letters were sent to 51 other Groups of companies requesting for same information spanning same period.”
According to the statement, Dangote Group acknowledged receiving the EFCC’s letter and asked for clarity regarding which subsidiaries or firms within the Group they needed information on.
It further asked for more time to gather and arrange the copious paperwork that covered a decade.
“However, the EFCC did not provide the clarification sought and also did not honour the request for an extension and insisted on receiving the complete set of documents within the limited timeframe.” The Dangote group said.
It explained further that “despite this constraint, we assured the EFCC of our commitment to providing the information and pledged to share documents in batches as we complete the compilation.
“On 4 January 2024, our team delivered the first batch of documents to the EFCC. However, officers of the EFCC did not accept the documents, insisting on visiting our offices to collect the same set of documents directly.
“Whilst our representatives were still at the EFCC’s office to deliver the documents, a team of their officers proceeded to visit our offices to demand for the same documents in a manner that appeared designed to cause us unwarranted embarrassment. Worthy of note is the fact that the officials did not take any documents or files from our Head office during their visit as these were already in their office.”
The Dangote group in its statement went on to emphasise that to the group’s knowledge, no accusations of wrongdoing have been made against any company within the conglomerate.
“As a law-abiding and ethical corporate citizen, we remain committed to providing the EFCC with all necessary information and cooperation. We have already delivered the first batch of documents and are actively working to compile and submit the remaining documents, in good time, to aid their investigation,” it said.
“Our Group is a key contributor to the national GDP, the largest employer in the private sector, one of the largest groups listed on the Nigerian Exchange and one of the highest taxpayers in the country. We remain steadfast in our belief in Nigeria’s commitment to the rule of law and its dedication to fostering an environment conducive for investment and value creation for both local and foreign investors.”