Senate Withdraws Report Acquitting MTN of Forex Transfers

• Senate Withdraws Report Acquitting MTN of Forex Transfers

The Senate has withdrawn a report that largely exonerated MTN Nigeria of accusations of illegally repatriating $14bn and that rebuked the Central Bank of Nigeria for regulatory failures.

The report, presented to the Senate on Thursday and reviewed by Reuters, was almost immediately sent back for further work, because it did not capture possible infractions by all stakeholders, two people familiar with the matter said.

The upper house of parliament agreed last September to investigate whether Africa’s biggest telecoms company unlawfully repatriated $13.92bn from Nigeria, its most lucrative market, which generates a third of its revenue, between 2006 and 2016.

MTN, which has denied any wrongdoing, could not immediately be reached for comment.

The crux of the allegation is that MTN did not obtain certificates declaring it had invested foreign currency in Nigeria within a 24-hour deadline stipulated in a 1995 law, and so the repatriation of returns on those investments was illegal.

The Senate formed a committee to investigate the allegations against MTN and financial institutions, including the CBN, and commercial banks such as Stanbic IBTC Bank Plc.

The committee’s report gave no recommendations for punitive measures against MTN.

Instead, the report rebuked the central bank for its failure to monitor fund transfers to and from the country, calling its oversight of banks “inadequate.”

It recommended that the Senate “condemn the Central Bank of Nigeria for failing in its duty” to address problems with its monitoring of foreign exchange transfers.

The CBN’s duty is to correct and, if needed, sanction banks and their customers for any wrongdoing, which it never did, said the report, adding that the central bank never testified to the committee that there were any infractions.

By never applying sanctions, the CBN had lent credence to the banks’ argument that they were not breaking any rules by transferring foreign currency, the report said.

A CBN spokesman was not immediately available for comment.

However, the report also urged the central bank to “sanction Stanbic IBTC for improper documentation in respect of capital repatriation and loan repayments amounting to $388,195,183 and $199,440,952, respectively”.

Stanbic IBTC was not immediately available for comment.

The findings were met with dismay by some in the Senate.

Senators did not understand why the report largely condemned the CBN, while MTN and the commercial banks that transferred money overseas were barely reprimanded, said one of the people familiar with the investigation.

The document is a “poorly investigated report full of indecent holes,” the person said, speaking on condition of anonymity.