Some foreign missions in Nigeria charge in dollars, determine their own FX rates – EFCC

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) says foreign missions based in Nigeria use third parties to transact in foreign currencies.

Wilson Uwujaren, EFCC’s acting director of public affairs, spoke on Tuesday in an interview on Arise Television.

On May 11, a report showed that the EFCC sent an advisory letter titled ‘EFCC Advisory to Foreign Missions against Invoicing in the US Dollar,’ to Yusuf Tuggar, minister of foreign affairs.

According to the report, the EFCC banned foreign missions in Nigeria from transacting in foreign currencies and mandated the use of naira in their financial businesses.

Reacting to the report on Tuesday, Uwujaren said it is not the place of the EFCC to ban or direct foreign missionaries in the manner or way they handle their finances, as against alarming headlines in the news.

He said it is against the law for foreign missions based in Nigeria to transact in foreign currencies, hence, the commission’s mandate on using the naira in financial businesses.

“We recognise as a commission that foreign missions are representatives of their home countries, enjoy certain diplomatic privileges under international law. The commission is not a place to want to interfere with some of the privileges that they enjoy under international law,” he said.

“It is not within the remit of the EFCC to either ban or direct foreign missions in the manner or the way they handle their finances.

“What actually happened is that the commission, over time, observed that a number of the foreign missions, by the manner in which they handled consular services, engaged third parties to carry out consular services on their behalf, and those third parties have been invoicing in dollars.

“Some even went to the ridiculous extent of determining the exchange rate or the naira in the course of the transaction with Nigerians and some foreign nationals based in Nigeria.

“We thought that that practice conflicted with extant laws and regulations in Nigeria, and we felt compelled to bring this practice to the knowledge of the missions through the ministry of foreign affairs.”

Uwujaren further clarified that the EFCC never wrote any letter to any foreign mission in Nigeria.

“The advisory that we issued was to the ministry of foreign affairs, and what we did was essentially to bring this practice, which we believe conflict with section 20, subsection 1 of the Central Bank of Nigeria act, that section of recipient Act actually makes the naira the only legal tender in Nigeria, which presupposes that is the only acceptable currency for doing business within the borders of our country,” he added.

Speaking on whether the ministry had responded to the letter, Uwujaren said the foreign affairs ministry has the protocol of engaging with foreign missions in Nigeria and is within their competence to determine the ways in which to transmit the information to the various missions in Nigeria.

“Essentially, our focus is to discourage the dollarisation of transactions within the local Nigerian economy,” he said.

‘NAIRA ABUSE, FOREX MALPRACTICES AGAINST THE LAW’

Uwujaren said there was enforcement in place to fight the abuse of the naira and discourage transactions in dollars within Nigeria, which is against the law.

“We have a special task force on naira abuse and forex malpractices that is walking across our zonal commands throughout the federation, and the focus is to discourage people from transacting in dollars because the naira is the only acceptable means of transaction in the country,” he said.

On steps taken to create awareness, an EFCC spokesperson said the commission has informed those involved that some of the practices carried out are against the law.

“The onus is on them to take corrective action and ensure that the practices are in alignment with the laws and regulations that exist in our country. If they fail to do that, then the commission will have no option but to enforce the law,” he added.

He urged Nigerians to report any wrong or abnormal activity of businesses or persons charging in dollars and not in the local currency.

Uwujaren said the commission was working assiduously to prevent the abuse of naira.