The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has frozen over 300 accounts linked to illicit foreign exchange (FX) trading.

Speaking in Abuja on Tuesday, Ola Olukoyede, EFCC’s chairman, said the agency secured a court order to freeze the accounts.

“We got an order to freeze those accounts imagine what would have happened if we didn’t seize those accounts,” he said.

“There are people in this country doing worse than Binance,” he said.

Olukoyede said over $15 billion passed through one of the platforms in the last year, which was not regulated by financial regulators.

The development comes a day after Kenya’s police service reportedly arrested Nadeem Anjarwalla, the Binance regional manager for Africa.

On March 22, Anjarwalla escaped from an Abuja guest house where he and Tigran Gambaryan, his colleague, had been kept by the federal government.

Anjarwalla was said to have escaped after guards led him to a nearby mosque for prayers during the Ramadan fast.

Anjarwalla and Gambaryan were charged with tax evasion and money laundering by the federal government. The duo were arrested and detained on February 28.

On February 27, 2024, Olayemi Cardoso, governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), said $26 billion passed through Binance Nigeria from unidentified sources in one year.

Cardoso said the apex bank was collaborating with different agencies, including the EFCC, the police, and the office of the national security adviser (NSA) to tackle illicit financial flows in the country.

Dangote Petroleum Refinery has announced another reduction in the prices of both diesel and aviation fuel to N940 and N980 per litre, respectively.

The development comes days after the refinery reduced diesel price to N1,000 per litre.

In a statement on Tuesday, the refinery said the price change of N940 is applicable to customers buying five million litres or more from the refinery, while those purchasing one million litres or more will pay N970.

According to the company, this marks the third major reduction in diesel price “in less than three weeks when the product sold at N1,700 to N1,200 and also a further reduction to N1,000 and now N940 for diesel and N980 for aviation fuel per litre”.

Speaking on the new development, Anthony Chiejina, head of communication, Dangote Group, said the new price is in tandem with the company’s commitment to alleviating the effect of economic hardship in Nigeria.

“I can confirm to you that Dangote Petroleum Refinery has entered a strategic partnership with MRS Oil and Gas stations, to ensure that consumers get to buy fuel at affordable price, in all their stations be it Lagos or Maiduguri,” he said.

“You can buy as low as 1 litre of diesel at N1,050 and aviation fuel at N980 at all major airports where MRS operates.”

He added that the partnership will be extended to other major oil marketers.

“The essence of this is to ensure that retail buyers do not buy at exorbitant prices,” he said.

“The Dangote Group is committed to ensuring that Nigerians have a better welfare and as such, we are happy to announce this new prices and hope that it would go a long way to cushion the effect of economic challenges in the country.”

Reacting to the latest development, Ajayi Kadiri, director-general of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), said the decision “to first crash the price from about N1,750/litre to N1,200/litre, N1,000/litre and now N940 is an eloquent demonstration of the capacity of local industries to positively impact the fortunes of the national economy”.

“The trickledown effect of this singular intervention promises to change the dynamics in the energy cost equation of the country, in the midst of inadequate and rising cost of electricity,” Kadiri said.

He said the reduction will ease the high inflation rate in the country, and have far-reaching impact on critical sectors like industrial operations, transportation, logistics, and agriculture.

Kadiri added that companies will be back in operation due to the price reduction.

The federal government says it would sell off five electricity distribution companies (DisCos) under the management of banks and Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) in the next three months to technical power operators.

Adebayo Adelabu, minister of power, spoke in Abuja on Monday when the members of the senate committee on power visited the ministry.

The five DisCos include Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC), currently under the management of the United Bank for Africa (UBA); Benin Electricity Distribution Company, Kaduna Electricity Distribution Company, and Kano Electricity Distribution Company, managed by Fidelity Bank, while Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company is under AMCON management.

The DisCos are under the management of the banks and AMCON due to their debt burden.

Adelabu said the energy distribution assets are technical and as such, they should be under the management of technical experts.

He also said the tough decision on the DisCos has become necessary because the entire Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) fails when they refuse to perform.

According to Adebayo, the ministry will prevail on the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) to revoke underperforming licenses and also change the management board of the DisCos if it becomes the solution.

“On distribution, very soon you will see that tough decisions will be taken on the DisCos. They are the last lap of the sector. If they don’t perform, the entire sector is not performing,” Adebayo said.

”The entire ministry is not performing. We have put pressure on NERC, which is their regulator to make sure they raise the bar on regulation activities.

”If they have to withdraw licenses for non-performance, why not? If they have to change the board of management, why not?

“And all the DisCos that are still under AMCON and Banks, within the next three months, must be sold to technical power operators with good reputations in utility management.

“We can no longer afford AMCON to run our DisCos. We can no longer afford the banks to run our DisCos. This is a technical industry and it must be run by technical experts.”

The minister further said it has become necessary to reorganise the DisCos for efficiency.

He stressed that Ibadan DisCo is too large for one company to manage.

FG TO REVOKE METRE CONTRACT FROM FIRM

Adelabu also dropped the hint that the federal government mobilised a company named Messr Zigglass with $200 million (N32 billion) to supply three million meters that were yet to be supplied to date.

“If you held N32 billion for these years, where is the interest,” he asked.

According to Adelabu, President Bola Tinubu directed that the contract be revoked.

He said the government will bridge the current eight million metering gap in the next four to five years.

The minister said the funding for the metre is coming from a seed capital of N100 billion and N75 billion.

He added that the Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority (NISA) is coming to the aid of the ministry with the fund.