OBAMA COMMENDS BUHARI OVER FOREX FLEXIBILITY

President Barack Obama of United States of America has commended President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria for allowing flexibility in foreign exchange rates (Forex).

President Obama who spoke after a meeting with President Buhari on the sidelines of the annual United Nations General Assembly, said that he and Nigerian leader had discussed fight against terrorism and ways of countering the Boko Haram militant group.

Meanwhile at a bilateral meeting with President Jacob Zuma of South Africa on the sidelines of the 71st Session of the United Nations General Assembly, President Buhari assured existing and potential investors in Nigeria of adequate protection of their lives, investments and property.

Buhari said the security situation in Nigeria had become very much better and conducive.

He said: “The de-radicalisation process is also going on, and we are achieving some measure of success. Even suicide bombing is becoming rare, as the local people are themselves rejecting indoctrination by the insurgents.”

Buhari said Nigeria was working hard to diversify the economy and expressed willingness to collaborate with South African businessmen especially in the areas of mining and agriculture, for the mutual benefit of the two countries.

In his remarks, Zuma recollected his visit to Nigeria earlier this year which he described as “very successful.”

He added that he was interested in the promotion of economic and trade partnerships between the two countries.

At another bilateral meeting with President Macky Sall of Senegal, both Buhari and the Senegalese President expressed their happiness at the good cropping season being experienced in their countries.

The two presidents also reviewed the situation in Guinea Bissau and concluded that political leaders in the country should make sacrifices to guarantee peace and development of the country.
Meanwhile, Buhari yesterday admitted that the Nigerian project is presently facing challenges on every facet of the society.

While pledging to get the economy out of the woods, he said the solutions to the challenges must be fast tracked to get the economy up and running again.

To set Nigeria on the path of greatness and prosperity, Buhari, stated that complete elimination of all forms of corrupt practices must be in the front burner, adding that this must be in the collective consciousness of every Nigerian.

The president, who was represented by the Head of Service of the Federation (HoSF), Mrs. Winifred Oyo-Ita, made the disclosure at the 2016 Nigerian Institute of Management (NIM) annual conference in Abuja.

According to him, the theme, Building a New Nigeria: strategic options and policy, chosen by the institute is apt and relevant towards charting a new course and national reorientation because of the present state of affairs in the country.

He admitted that the theme is in tandem with the policy and working agenda of the present administration.

He said: “You will agree with me that great a nation is the reward of great leadership built on good governance. This is our motivation and value proposition.

“My administration will, therefore, continue to fight corruption and associated social vices at all levels until they are exterminated from our body polity.

“By choosing this theme as the focus of this year’s Conference, the Institute has further demonstrated in thought and deed that it is committed to supporting government in achieving its drive to reposition and turn around the nation’s economy.”

On the need for Nigerians to imbibe the institute’s code of conduct, he said: “I therefore, call on the Institute to ensure that its code of conduct becomes a culture for all Nigerians through their interaction and collaboration with the National Orientation Agency (NOA) and other relevant agencies that will support this cause.

“If all Nigerians align themselves with the Institute’s code conduct, Nigeria shall become an enviable nation.”

The president, said government has not relented in its resolve to ensure that it delivers the dividends of democracy to Nigerians through good governance, especially in the areas of providing security, fighting corruption, employment generation and diversification of the economy.

He, however commended the contributions and support of the NIM towards national development and the professionalism it has demonstrated in the areas of public policy advocacy and other programmes on topical issues affecting Nigeria.

“I further challenge the Institute to improve its visibility at public sessions of the National Assembly when Bills are being considered so as to make more robust professional management input that will be most relevant in the public domain.

“To set this country on the path of greatness and prosperity, complete elimination of all forms of corrupt practices must be in the front burner and our collective consciousness always.” he said.
In his remark, the president of NIM, Prof. Munzali Jibril, blamed past leaders for the mismanagement of the nation’s resources, adding, that this has accounted for the low development indices over the years.

While, blaming the present challenges of the economy on over dependence on oil, he said Nigeria has only succeeded in building strong individuals and weak institutions.
He said: “As the world’s seventh largest producer of oil, the nation had earned stupendous income (trillions of dollars) from the resource and, therefore, has no business being poor and underdeveloped.”

While advocating for the diversification of the economy, he called on members of the institute to do away with avarice, self aggrandisement, contract splitting and over invoicing, greed and other vices that are common place in the work place.

@Economic Confidential

PANAMA PAPERS LATEST-SECRECY FOR SALE: INSIDE THE GLOBAL OFFSHORE MONEY MAZE

The son of former Nigerian leader & onetime  EU Official Among 

Those Named in New Leak of Offshore Files from The Bahamas

By Will Fitzgibbon and Emilia Díaz-Struck 

Millions of leaked files from two financial service providers, a private bank in Jersey and the Bahamas corporate registry reveal how tax havens around the world are used to hide riches.

Government officials and their families and associates in China, Azerbaijan, Russia, Canada, Pakistan, the Philippines, Thailand, Mongolia and other countries have embraced the use of covert companies and bank accounts.

The mega-rich use complex offshore structures to own mansions, yachts, art masterpieces and other assets, gaining tax advantages and anonymity not available to average people.

Many of the world’s top’s banks – including UBS, Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank – have aggressively worked to provide their customers with secrecy-cloaked companies in the British Virgin Islands and other offshore hideaways.

A well-paid industry of accountants, middlemen and other operatives has helped offshore patrons shroud their identities and business interests, providing shelter in many cases to money laundering or other misconduct.

Ponzi schemers and other large-scale fraudsters routinely use offshore havens to pull off their shell games and move their ill-gotten gains.

The goals, team members, and media partners of this multi-year project.

A cache of leaked documents provides names of politicians and others linked to more than 175,000 Bahamian companies registered between 1990 and 2016

For years, Neelie Kroes traveled Europe as one of the continent’s senior officials, warning big corporations that they couldn’t “run away” from the European Union’s rules. The Dutch politician sympathized with average citizens who worried they’d been left to pay the bills “as infringers cream off the extra profits.”

As the EU’s commissioner for competition policy from 2004 until 2010, she was Europe's top corporate enforcer and made Forbes magazine’s annual list of the “World’s 100 Most Powerful Women” five times.

What Kroes never told audiences – and didn’t tell European Commission officials in mandatory disclosures – was that she had been listed as a director of an offshore company in the Bahamas, the Caribbean tax haven whose secrecy and tax structures have attracted multinational companies and criminals alike.

Kroes was listed as director of a Bahamian company from 2000 to 2009, according to documents reviewed by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.  

Kroes, through a lawyer, told ICIJ and media partners that she did not declare her directorship of the company because it was never operational. Kroes’ lawyer blamed her appearance on company records as “a clerical oversight which was not corrected until 2009.” 

Her lawyer said the company, set up through a Jordanian businessman and friend of Kroes, had been created to investigate the possibility of raising money to purchase assets – worth more than $6 billion – from Enron Corp., the American energy giant. The deal never came off, and Enron later collapsed amid a massive accounting scandal. 

Emily O’Reilly, the European Ombudsman with powers to investigate alleged breaches of EU rules and procedures, did not comment on the Kroes’ case but said: “When the rules are breached, whether accidentally or otherwise, the negative impression it leaves with the public tends to resonate more strongly than any positive counter steps subsequently undertaken.”

Details of Kroes’ link to the offshore company are among the revelations found in a new leak of documents, received by the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung and shared with ICIJ, that disclose details behind companies incorporated in the Bahamas. 

The cache of 1.3 million files from the island nation’s corporate registry provides names of directors and some owners of more than 175,000 Bahamian companies, trusts and foundations registered between 1990 and early 2016. 

Today ICIJ, Süddeutsche Zeitung and other media partners are making this information available to the public. This creates, for the first time, a free, online and publicly-searchable database of offshore companies set up in the Bahamas. This information has been combined with data from the Panama Papers and other leaked offshore documents to add additional heft to one of the largest public databases of offshore entities  new information reveals previously unknown or little-reported connections to companies owned or run by current or former politicians from the Americas, Africa, Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

In the Bahamas’ capital, Nassau, company documents can be consulted in person. An online registry, in theory, serves the same purpose. Yet the information in the online registry maintained by the Bahamian government is often incomplete. 

In addition, retrieving one company’s documents will cost at least $10, in conflict with the recommendation of the international association of company registries, which discourages search fees.

The data released yesterday involve the basic building blocks of offshore companies: a company’s name, its date of creation, the physical and mailing address in the Bahamas and, in some cases, the company’s directors. 

At a basic level, this information is crucial to day-to-day commerce. In other cases, police, detectives and fraud investigators use registries as starting points on the trail of wrongdoing.

“Corporate registries are incredibly important,” said Debra LaPrevotte, a former U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation special agent whose work included tracing billions of dollars in bribes and corruption proceeds hidden in tax havens for politicians from Ukraine, Nigeria and Bangladesh. “Offshore companies are often used as intermediaries to facilitate money laundering and, frequently, the companies are only used to open bank accounts, thus the corporate registry documents, which might identify the beneficial owners, are part of the evidence.”

Unlike the Panama Papers, 11.5 million often-detailed emails, contracts, audio recordings and other documents from one law firm, the information listed in the new Bahamian documents is plainer — if still fundamental — in content. 

The new data does not make it clear, for example, whether directors named in connection with a Bahamian firm truly control the company or act as nominees, employees-for-hire who serve as the face of the company but have no involvement in its operations.

When paired with the Panama Papers, the Bahamas data provide fresh insights into the offshore dealings of politicians, criminals and executives as well as the bankers and lawyers who help move money.

The new leaked documents include the names of 539 registered agents— corporate middlemen who serve as intermediaries between Bahamian authorities and customers who wish to create an offshore company. Among them is Mossack Fonseca, the law firm whose leaked files formed the basis of the Panama Papers. 

The firm set up 15,915 entities in the Bahamas, making it Mossack Fonseca’s third busiest jurisdiction. At one point, Bahamian companies were among Mossack Fonseca’s best-sellers.

Mossack Fonseca offices.A police officer outside Mossack Fonseca's Panama City office. Photo: AP Photo/Arnulfo FrancoThe Panama Papers show how Mossack Fonseca helped clients use Bahamian secrecy to keep their name out of public filings and how the law firm undermined the global push towards tax transparency.

Beyond Mossack Fonseca and the Panama Papers, the leaked Bahamian files reveal details of the offshore activities of prime ministers, cabinet ministers, princes and convicted felons. 

It is generally not illegal to own or direct an offshore company, and there are legitimate business reasons in many cases for setting up an offshore structure. But transparency experts say it’s important that public officials disclose their connections to offshore entities.

The political and government figures named in the leaked documents include Colombia’s minister of mines and energy between 1999 and 2001, Carlos Caballero Argáez. He was listed as president and secretary of a Bahamian company, Pavc Properties Inc., between 1997 and 2008. Caballero Argáez also appeared as director of Norway Inc., a company registered in the Bahamas between 1990 and 2015.

Argáez told ICIJ that Norway Inc. held a Miami bank account owned by his father. The account’s assets were distributed to his sons upon his death, Argáez said. Pavc Properties owned an apartment in Miami, Argáez said, and his relationship with the company ended in 2008, when he sold his shares. Argáez said he and others chose the Bahamas on lawyers’ advice. He denied any conflict of interest. He said the company was set in the Bahamas for “tax purposes.”

In the case of Kroes, the former senior EU official, the records show that she was director of Mint Holdings Ltd from July 2000 to October 2009. The company was registered in the Bahamas in April 2000 and is currently active.

In response to questions from ICIJ, the Guardian and Dutch newspapers Trouw and Het Financieele Dagblad, Kroes acknowledged that she did not disclose her connection to this company in her declarations of personal financial interests when she first became competition commissioner in 2004 or in later declarations as she continued serving as a high-level EU official.

Kroes served as competition commissioner from November 2004 to February 2010 and as digital commissioner from February 2010 to November 2014. 

EU rules require that European commissioners declare all their economic interests in the previous 10 years, including governing, supervisory and advisory positions in companies devoted to commercial and economic activities.

Mint Holdings’ other directors included Jordanian businessman Amin Badr-El-Din. Badr-El-Din was still listed as holding that position in documents from July 2015. The Bahamas online corporate registry does not list the company’s directors.

Mint Holdings Ltd.Click to explore the Offshore Leaks Database.Badr-El-Din founded UAE Offsets Group, a company that reinvests proceeds from weapons sales into the United Arab Emirates. UAE Offsets Group previously contracted with the weapons manufacturing giant Lockheed Martin Corp. Kroes worked as a lobbyist for Lockheed prior to being named EU competition commissioner.

When she was appointed EU competition commissioner, Kroes placed her money in a blind trust and promised to avoid adjudicating on companies with which she had a connection.  While her opponents worried that she might be soft on the business world, Kroes earned the nickname “Steely Neelie” as she imposed record fines on companies that fixed prices and organized unfair monopolies.

Since stepping away from her EU positions, however, she has criticized her successor as competition minister for a ruling declaring that tech giant Apple owes Ireland €13 billion in unpaid taxes.

Kroes, 75, is currently a director or board member of several companies and serves as an advisor to Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Uber. She remains an influential member of the Netherlands’ ruling People's Party for Freedom and Democracy.

Kroes rejected any criticism of her business activities. Her lawyer said she denied that “she was ever conflicted by ties to the private sector.”

The declarations to the European Union that omitted mention of Mint Holdings were “made in good faith” and “to the best of her knowledge,” Kroes’ lawyer said. “The assumption was that she was no longer a director after the company was no longer needed.”

“Mrs. Kroes will inform the President of the European Commission of this oversight and will take full responsibility for it,” Kroes’ lawyer said.

Badr-El-Din said “Mint Holdings was established as a special purpose vehicle to manage the acquisition of international energy assets, principally from Enron. That deal fell through in late summer of 2000.”

If the deal had gone through, said an attorney for Badr-El-Din, the company was to become “the world’s premier gas company, leading industry away from oil and coal” and reduce Europe’s dependency on Russia’s energy monopoly.

Badr-El-Din’s role in the proposed purchase of Enron’s global assets had been previously disclosed by The New York Times, but Kroes’ involvement in the potential deal apparently had never been reported.

Kroes continued being listed as a director of Mint Holdings until 2009 because the “lawyers involved did not carry out all the instructions and terminate Mrs Kroes’ directorship with Mint Holding,” Badr-El-Din said. “Once these clerical oversights came to light in 2009, they were corrected.”

The Bahamas is a constellation of 700 islands, many smaller than a square mile. It is one of a handful of micro nations south of the United States whose confidentiality laws and reluctance to share information with foreign governments gave rise to the term “Caribbean curtain.”

For nearly a century, the Bahamas has been on the radar of tax officials around the world.

Nassau, the BahamasThe Bahamas' capital, Nassau, is home to cruise ships, resorts and offshore service providers. Photo: ShutterstockIn the 1930s, the U.S. Internal Revenue Service investigated Americans who avoided taxes in Switzerland and the Bahamas, which once sold itself as the “Switzerland of the West.” 

The focus intensified in the 1960s when U.S. investigators noticed an uptick in the use of the Bahamas by organized crime bosses. U.S. bank assets in the Bahamas, meanwhile, ballooned eight times between 1973 and 1979. By the end of the 1970s, one study reported that the “flow of criminal and tax evasion money” into the Bahamas was $20 billion a year.

To peek behind the curtain, a clandestine U.S. government project named “Operation Tradewinds” used IRS agents who paid an informant to enter the bedroom of a Bahamian banker visiting Miami and to remove his briefcase. At a nearby restaurant, another IRS informant provided the oblivious banker with “female entertainment.”

The briefcase held a goldmine of information from one Bahamian bank on 308 U.S. account holders, including mafia kingpins, celebrities and corporate moguls, who reportedly held as much as a quarter of a billion dollars.

Although the operation led to criminal prosecutions and $100 million in tax penalties, it was scrapped in 1975 after congressional outcry into the IRS’s use of informants.  A U.S. court later declared the briefcase search “flagrantly illegal.”

In 2000, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the world’s leading tax policy forum, placed the Bahamas on a blacklist of countries that aid tax dodging. After the Bahamas hurriedly introduced nine new laws, the OECD removed it from the blacklist in 2001. 

In 2009, though, the OECD put the Bahamas on the organization’s “gray list,” a less severe categorization that nonetheless signified nonconformity with international standards.

The Bahamas is a staple of U.S. tax evasion investigations. Walter C. Anderson, a Washington, D.C., telecommunications executive who disguised his ownership of companies through shell entities in the British Virgin Islands and the Bahamas, was sent to prison in 2007 for evading more than $200 million in income taxes. 

In 2007, billionaire real estate developer Igor Olenicoff pleaded guilty to a federal tax felony relating to misleading tax returns and the quiet transfer of $196 million into the Bahamas. Olenicoff, who chaired two Bahamian companies with bank accounts on the island, told Forbes earlier this year “that his offshore law firm of choice was in the Bahamas.”

Years later, the Bahamas emerged as a common thread in the U.S. Department of Justice’s crackdown on Swiss banking giant UBS. Between 2009 and 2014, the agency took criminal actions against U.S. citizens and residents with offshore dealings in the Bahamas, including a consultant from California, a steel executive from Illinois, a computer executive from Ohio, a Texan oil industry consultant, a Florida hotel developer and a New Mexico farmer.

In many cases, U.S. investigators struggled to know where to begin. Bahamian law requires the names of directors, who have complete power over offshore companies, to be filed with the national registrar. 

Yet the names are not always available online and directors’ names cannot be searched individually or without preexisting knowledge of the Bahamian company’s name. That makes it difficult to check whether a public official or a corporate executive is linked to companies chartered in the Bahamas.

In the new documents, for example, Exxon Azerbaijan Caspian Sea Limited, the energy giant’s company in the repressive yet oil-rich nation Azerbaijan lists no directors in the Bahamas registry. Yet there are 19 directors listed in the documents seen by ICIJ. 

The Bahamian company Equatorial Guinea LNG Holdings Limited shows no directors in the Bahamas’ public registry but, in files reviewed by ICIJ, six well-connected Equatorial Guineans appear, including the First Lady’s brother and four current and former ministers of energy.

Jason Sharman, who co-authored a survey of information from 40 corporate registers around the world, said the names of offshore company directors are basic information that should be easily accessible to the public.

These days, the Bahamas, a one-hour plane ride from Miami to the capital, Nassau,  claims to be cleaner than ever. Yet doubts persist.

“Bahamas has taken an attitude of selective noncompliance with its own laws, and it is now pushing out this message with a nudge, nudge, wink, wink.” – Nicholas Shaxson

In 2014, the most recent review of the Bahamas’ anti-money laundering systems by the OECD faulted the country on half of the core measures used to judge countries’ compliance with international standards. This included no requirement for banks or financial institutions to know the real identity of a company or trust owner. Although the OECD now considers the Bahamas compliant, in June 2015, the European Union listed the Bahamas and 30 other countries as uncooperative tax havens.

Nicholas Shaxson, author of Treasure Islands: Tax Havens and the Men Who Stole the World, said the Bahamas is one of the handful of tax havens with a riskier and wilder reputation than bigger offshore jurisdictions such as Switzerland.

The Bahamas is “on a par with Panama in terms of its thirst for and tolerance of dirty money,” said Shaxson.

Recently, Shaxson said, as governments push tax havens to share banking and financial information with national tax agencies concerned about offshore evasion by citizens, the Bahamas has pushed back.

“They are saying ‘While everyone else is being transparent, your secrets are safe with us,’” said Shaxson. “Bahamas has also long taken an attitude of selective noncompliance with its own laws, and it is now pushing out this message with a nudge, nudge, wink, wink.”

Bahamian authorities told ICIJ that the country honors its international obligations and cooperates with international authorities. The Bahamas “does not tolerate dirty money,” authorities said, noting it “has in many areas been rated as ‘largely compliant’ with international standards.”

Authorities did not comment on specific cases and defended the Bahamian corporate registry. “Fees for online registry searches covers the cost and upgrading of the online system,” said authorities.

Regarding the sharing of tax information, authorities said: “The Bahamas negotiates in good faith with all appropriate partners of the Global Forum for transparency and exchange of information for tax purposes, subject to…international confidentiality and data security standards.”

Marco Antonio and Augusto PinochetFormer Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, right, with his son Marco Antonio. Photo: AP Photo / Martin ThomasBahamian companies, trusts and bank accounts have appeared in numerous cases involving the seizure of dictators’ and politicians’ money. 

The son of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet used a Bahamian company, Meritor Investments Limited, to move $1.3 million to his father. Pinochet’s son, Marco Antonio, dismissed the allegations as “lies” and declared no wrongdoing through the Bahamas. Pinochet himself owned another Bahamian company, Ashburton Company Limited,  set up in 1996. 

Abba Abacha, the son of former Nigerian president, Sani Abacha, had $350 million frozen in Luxembourg and the Bahamas as part of a global asset hunt into the estimated $3 billion stripped from Nigeria during his father’s five-year rule.

Bahamian companies and bank accounts have also played key roles in graft schemes involving former politicians from Greece, Ukraine, Kuwait and Trinidad and Tobago and in illegal kickbacks to Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi government under the United Nations Oil-for-Food program.

The Bahamas was also linked to the dealings of five politicians and public officials revealed in the Panama Papers.

They include Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani, Qatar’s former prime minister and foreign minister until 2013, who owned Trick One Limited, a Bahamas company. In January 2005, when foreign minister, Al Thani signed a loan agreement with a bank for $53 million. As collateral on the loan, Al Thani signed up the Al Marqab, a 133-meter, prize-winning yacht worth $300 million.

Argentina’s president, Mauricio Macri, his father Francisco and brother Mariano, directed Fleg Trading Ltd, set up in the Bahamas in 1998 and dissolved 11 years later. Macri did not disclose his connection to Fleg Trading in asset declarations in 2007 and 2008 when he was mayor of Buenos Aires. 

Following the release of Panama Papers, an Argentine prosecutor sought information from authorities in Panama and the Bahamas as part of an investigation into whether Macri “maliciously” omitted his connections to the company.”

Macri's spokesman told ICIJ that the Argentine president didn't disclose Fleg Trading Ltd. because he held no financial interests or shares in the company.

The Bahamas was also where meetings and documents were held for Blairmore Holdings Inc., the investment fund directed by Ian Cameron, father of former British Prime Minister David Cameron. 

Ian Cameron died on Sept. 8, 2010. After the release of the Panama Papers, David Cameron was forced to admit that he financially benefited from the fund, which managed tens of millions of pounds on behalf of wealthy families. Through the offshore structure, incorporated in Panama but run from the Bahamas, the fund avoided paying tax in the United Kingdom.

Mossack Fonseca did not reply to ICIJ’s request for comment. The law firm previously told ICIJ: “As a registered agent we merely help incorporate companies, and before we agree to work with a client in any way, we conduct a thorough due-diligence process, one that in every case meets and quite often exceeds all relevant local rules, regulations and standards to which we and others are bound.” 

Mossack Fonseca pushed the Bahamas’s confidentiality laws as a selling point and echoed the country’s own defense of the offshore industry in the face growing global calls for transparency.

In 2003, as the country recovered from its money-laundering blacklisting, a Mossack Fonseca employee met with a client to discuss the need for “an aggressive public relations campaign … to try to change the bad perception people have about the Bahamas when it comes to privacy.” Information was “not exchanged often or extensively,” the two reassured one another, according to internal notes from the Panama Papers.

In 2009, a Mossack Fonseca employee proposed transferring a U.S. customer’s assets to a trust in the Bahamas to ensure confidentiality during a bankruptcy.  

In 2014, Mossack Fonseca suggested to a New Zealand client that he use a Bahamas bank to obscure his ownership of a company. In 2015, a Spanish client used the Bahamas to bank half a million dollars she did not wish to declare back home. Another Spaniard used Mossack Fonseca’s in-house directors for a company to avoid listing his name in public registers.

Tax reform advocates have criticized tax havens, including the Bahamas, for trumpeting transparency while signing exchange agreements with other tax havens or with small countries unlikely to yield much information of use to poor, tax-starved governments. It signed one such agreement in 2010 with Greenland, which has a population of 57,000.  

A Mossack Fonseca employee and a Swiss client “joked” during a meeting in 2014 about a similar agreement between Greenland and another tax haven, Switzerland, according to internal meeting notes.

Bahamas brochureA brochure promoting the Bahamas financial services industry.Today, in advertising material, the Bahamas promotes a “unique approach” that purports to respect international rules yet protect its offshore clients. The Bahamas reassures potential investors that it will share tax information later than most other countries and, even then, only with selected governments that meet stringent technical and confidentiality requirements.

In line with this approach, the Bahamas has not signed the global treaty that helps countries share tax information. The OECD, the treaty’s governing body, calls it the “most powerful instrument against offshore tax evasion and avoidance.” In August, the number of participants hit 103, which includes tax havens and some of the world’s poorest countries.

The Bahamas argues that the cost and administrative burden of automatically exchanging tax details is too high and that client privacy could be jeopardized. The Bahamas claims it will instead uphold international rules through bilateral, or one-to-one, agreements.

“I am very doubtful that jurisdictions that seek to maintain bilateralism on this issue are serious about meeting their commitments even under bilateral agreements,” said Reuven Avi-Yonah, professor of tax law at the University of Michigan and former consultant for the United States and the OECD.

The multilateral convention “is the new global standard,” said Professor Avi-Yonah, “and jurisdictions that are serious about exchange of information sign on to it. I worry that money will flow to the bilateral jurisdictions and no information will be forthcoming.”

The Bahamas, however, has reason to be happy with the status quo. In 2016, the Bahamas expects to earn $17.7 million from offshore company fees.

Recently, when countries met to forge an agreement on swapping tax information between nations, organizers declared that soon tax cheats would have “nowhere left to hide.” The Bahamas’ minister of financial services struck another note with reporters, concluding: “We got everything we wanted.”

Contributors to this story: Mar Cabra, Rigoberto Carvajal, Miguel Fiandor Gutiérrez, Juliette Garside, Gaby de Groot, Michael Hudson, Carlos Eduardo Huertas, Frederik Obermaier, Bastian Obermayer, David Pegg, Martijn Roessingh and Vanessa Wormer

 

Emir Sanusi, Awosika, Utomi for Afrinvest Banking Sector Report Launch

The Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II, Chairman of First Bank of Nigeria, Ibukun Awosika, and renowned Professor of Political Economy, Pat Utomi, will lead other prominent bankers, economists and management experts from within and outside the country to attend the launch of the 2016 Nigerian Banking Sector Report on Wednesday, September 21 at the Muson Centre Onikan, Lagos.

 

Published by Afrinvest (West Africa) Limited, the Annual Nigerian Banking Sector Report has come to be recognized as the leading and most incisive report on Nigeria’s banking industry, and a valuable reference for local and international investors in the Nigerian economy. This year’s report is titled ‘Searching for Investor Confidence’, and it chronicles developments within the global and domestic economy in relation to monetary and fiscal policy responses to shocks while also contextualizing the impact of policy decisions on domestic macroeconomic variables. 

 

According to Ike Chioke, Managing Director of Afrinvest, who confirmed the participation of eminent personalities and key stakeholders from the financial services industry: “We are privileged to have quite a large number of dignitaries and notable financial experts from both the public and private sector attend the launch of this year’s Banking Sector Report, which is the 11^th since the inception of the report. Emir Muhammadu Sanusi II, former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), has graciously accepted to be our Special Guest of Honour.” 

 

“We are also pleased to announce that the Chairman of First Bank, Ibukun Awosika, and revered Professor of Political Economy, Professor Pat Utomi, will join other distinguished economists and bankers on a panel discussion during the launch to share their expert views and opinions about what needs to be done in the face of Nigeria’s current economic challenges in order to regain investor confidence and put our economy back on the path of growth and prosperity.” 

Other confirmed panelists include Doyin Salami, Senior Fellow - Lagos Business School and Member – Monetary Policy Committee of the CBN; Herbert Wigwe, Group MD/CEO, Access Bank Plc; Ayo Teriba, CEO, Economic Associates; Razia Khan, Regional Head of Economics, Standard Chartered Bank; and Sulaiman Abubakar, Chief Financial Officer, Sterling Bank Plc.

 

Afrinvest (West Africa) Limited is a wealth advisory firm involved in investment banking, securities trading, asset management and investment research with a focus on West Africa.

 

SAUDI AUTHORITIES PREVENTS OVER 200,000 ILLEGAL PILGRIMS FROM PERFORMING HAJJ

A total of 237,583 undocumented pilgrims, including more than 9,700 Saudi men and women, were turned back and prevented from entering Makkah and all of the Holy Sites as Hajj climax today with the climbing of Mount Arafat.

Though, a total of 1.34million pilgrims were officially listed to have performed the Hajj rites across the world excluding 100,000 from within the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

This was confirmed by Col. Sami Al-Shuwairikh, Director of Awareness and Media in the General Security of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

According to agencies reports, he also confirmed that 104,784 cars, carrying people without Hajj permits, were also turned back.

Twenty-four cooking gas cylinders were confiscated at pilgrims’ tents in Mina as the Saudi Authorities said as a precautionary safety rules, liquid cooking gas are not allowed to be used in the tents in Mina and Arafat.

Twenty seven well-equipped ambulances arrived in Arafat carrying sick pilgrims who were confined to hospitals in Madinah. They were received with roses, flowers and Zamzam water by a number of health officials.

 

To ensure a hitch free pilgrimage for the Muslim faithful, who will descend Mount Arafat before sunset today and return to Mina where where sacrificial lambs will be slaughtered tomorrow,  the authorities of the Kingdom had mobilised 60,000 staff through its Ministry of Hajj & Umrah,  5,000 hospital beds, 100 ambulances, 158 sick-bays along the pilgrims routes from Makkah to Medina, 18,000 buses, over 30 surveillance aircraft and helicopters, 51 medical buses on stand by. 23,000 to keep Makkah and other holy cities clean during and after the pilgrims departure.

In total, the authorities computed that all the foreign pilgrims spent  a total of about $5.3billion up to date during their visit to Saudi Arabia to perform Hajj. 

Pilgrims are expected to start their return journey to their different next weekend after the Sallah holidays cum festivities.

 

A COMPELLING REASON TO BEHAVE IN NIGERIA

Because what good is a corrupt justice system if you never get to see a judge?

By Meghan Walsh

A lot of life can happen in three years. You can earn a law degree, watch a newborn grow  a toddler, start a company called Facebook and grow it from zero users to 100 million. In Nigeria, you might also spend as long waiting in jail to see a judge.

But it’s not uncomon to hear of someone being detained for even longer, according to multiple human rights reports, which cite the 3.7 years figure. 

Then the trials themselves often last multiple years. The kicker? Very few people are convicted once they make it before a judge. Only 28 percent of inmates, or fewer than 18,000, are serving actual sentences.

The percentage of Nigeria’s incarcerated who fall into the innocent-until-proven-guilty category is very similar to another country’s: America. In the States, 70 percent of people in jail haven’t been convicted of a crime. Tosin Osasona, who now works for the Center for Public Policy Alternatives in Lagos but used to be a lawyer, recalls the case of a young man. 

The 15-year-old had been playing football at a construction site with friends when another boy was either pushed or fell onto an iron rod and died. The teenager spent a decade locked away and was in his 20s when the Legal Aid Council of Nigeria learned of his case. The charges were eventually dropped, says Osasona. 

The prison guard service did not respond to requests for comment, but in news accounts a public information officer has confirmed the long pretrial detentions and said the government is actively working to address the problem.

Many factors influence the lengthy wait times, a primary one being that very few prisoners have access to lawyers. Several international and local organizations have started programs to provide lawyers to indigent inmates in small jurisdictions and have had success improving the pipeline. 

Northwestern associate law professor Juliet Sorensen also points out that Nigeria is the most populous African country but has relatively few resources, which has left criminal justice institutions grossly unequipped. Like the States, Nigeria has adversarial courts, and it’s up to police to collect all evidence. 

Without resources, there is a tendency to turn to torture for confessions, says an Open Society Foundation report. At the same time, a relatively young democracy, the concept of mob justice is still very much woven into Nigeria’s culture, so people expect alleged criminals to be punished immediately. “The idea of a trial is alien,” says Osasona.

But the percentage of Nigeria’s incarcerated who fall into the innocent until proven guilty category is very similar to another developed country’s: America. In the States, 70 percent of people in jail haven’t been convicted of a crime. But “we don’t have the same excuses,” Sorensen says.

 THE DAILY DOSE

Tourism: GETTING DRUNK IN AFRICA IS EASIER THAN EVER

Gettyimage/

By Taylor Mayol

It’s Thursday night in Nairobi, and Aleem Ladak’s bar is packed with young professionals in suits and tight dresses gearing up for the night. The DJ is playing throwback hip-hop and Kenyan pop. The drinks are flowing. Five years ago, it’d have been wine and liquor, but nowadays, it’s beer — brewed here, in shiny silver tanks behind a glass wall. Ladak will likely sell out.

Across the continent, the beer business is booming. Last year, South African brewer SABMiller sold nearly 30 percent of its beverages in the African market, raking in $1.7 billion and helping to entice beer behemoth Anheuser-Busch InBev (AB InBev) to buy it up. 

That acquisition is pending, but sales are already up 11 percent this year, and by next year, Africa will be the world’s fastest-growing beer market, according to a 2015 report by Canadean. 

For a decade now, economists and industry experts have seen Africa — with its fast-paced urbanization and rising middle class with more money to spend — as a place with a massive pool of untapped consumer and growth potential. But perhaps nowhere has that dream been better realized than with beer.

While the rest of the world sees Africa’s youth-bulge as a strain on jobs and infrastructure, brewers see it through, well, beer goggles: Some 65 million Africans will reach the legal drinking age by 2023. 

By contrast, the landscape in developed countries is rather sobering: In the U.S., for instance, beer sales grew by a very diluted 0.2 percent. Ladak, the Kenyan brewer, lived the juxtaposition: He worked across Europe and Canada for craft brewers and some of the world’s biggest beer makers, and decided to commit to his hometown’s market potential. It has paid off: When he started, in 2009, he sold about 5,000 glasses a month. This year? He’s up to 60,000 — in hotels and restaurants, as well — and can’t make anymore.

The question for Ladak, and a host of other niche microbrewers who’ve just started gaining momentum, is whether they’ll have a place in Africa’s changing beer landscape. Craft breweries are but a fledgling phenomenon in Africa, with two in Kenya, a handful in Ethiopia and Namibia, and 160 in the most developed market, South Africa, according to estimates. 

The market is limited to young professionals and urbanites. Meanwhile, the $106 billion merger of SABMiller and AB InBev will create a company that will make one in three beers sold worldwide — and give AB InBev its long desired base in Africa, after years of scant sales there.

Historically, SABMiller’s has played pretty nice with African craft brewers, considering it has almost 90 percent of the market. On the one hand, it’s put resources to growing the beer market overall by selling hops to small brewers at cost and picking up the tab for craft brew festivals, says Lucy Corne, a beer writer and consultant based in Cape Town. 

On the other hand, its raw market power — which comes with massive influence over input and retail prices— makes brewers leery. “It’s a bit of a wolf in sheep’s clothes,” says Deon Englebrecht, who owns Stellenbrau, a craft brewery in South Africa’s winelands.

Even so, brewers like Englebrecht worry about a post-merger hangover. They point out that in other markets, including the U.S., AB InBev stood accused of buying up major distributors to allegedly make it more difficult for the little guys to get their brews on supermarket shelves. Last week, the Department of Justice approved the acquisition, but stipulated that it must review any distributor acquisitions AB InBev proposes for the next 10 years. As for the African market, ABin Bev spokesperson Emma Reynolds tells us that under its agreement with the South African government, it’s committed to “support the participation of small beer brewers in the local market.”

As it stands, the big brewers tend to produce one type of drink: “It’s a continent of lagers, lagers and more lagers,” says Corne. Of course, the independents, with their IPAs, stouts, malts and ales, tend to produce stuff of inconsistent quality — you may well get a pint that tastes skunked. Still, there’s variety, and for some Africans, there’s even more at stake: As in many countries, beer is about cultural identity.

Well before Europeans colonized Africa, many villages made their own homebrews from local crops, mostly maize but sometimes sorghum or even banana, and added twists like honey and ginger. The colonizers imported more standardized brews and tried to control access to alcohol. A half century after decolonization started, some of the continent’s oldest businesses are breweries, relics of the colonial era: Kenya’s iconic Tusker, for example, was first brewed by the British overlords in 1922. Independence leaders used beer as a rallying point — and, sometimes, a source of state funds. Idi Amin nationalized Uganda’s Nile Breweries, and, according to lore, the first regional African airline, East African Airways, fell apart when Kenya insisted on serving its national beer.

As it turns out, many of these supposedly national brews are actually owned by SABMiller, which prides itself on its ability to “reinvigorate national icon brands.” The world’s other big brewers are in on the game, of course. The Netherlands’ Heineken owns Congo’s Primus, while French-maker Castel owns Madagascar’s flagship, Three Horses Beer. For that matter, Budweiser — aka “America’s Beer” — has been owned by Belgium-based AB InBev since 2008.

For now, Ladak and his wife own Big Five Breweries. But being at capacity, he’s looking to open a new facility with six times the brew power and the ability to bottle the stuff. Which is to say, he needs some capital investment. He hopes it’ll come from American craft brewers.

THE DAILY DOSEAUG 23 /OZY

EFCC QUIZZES OVER 100 STAFF ON BRIBERY ALLEGATION

The Chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, said on Monday that more than 100 members of staff of the commission had been quizzed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission over bribery allegations during the last general elections.Yakubu stated this in the commission’s bulletin released in Abuja on Monday.

At the end of the investigations, he said those found guilty would be sacked by the commission.

Some Resident Electoral Officers of the commission were alleged to have been bribed by the officials of the Peoples Democratic Party during the 2015 elections.

 Also, many electoral officers and others, were said to have been involved in the bribery scandal.

The INEC boss said that all the indicted officers would be shown the way out to serve as a deterrent to others.

He said, “So far, over a 100 staff of INEC had been invited. At a point, we toyed with the idea of speaking to the EFCC to see the weight of evidence they have so that we can take administrative action against our staff, but they are innocent until they are proven guilty.

“They have to be charged to court, but we have taken notice and we have a complete list.”

Though the list of invited staff kept increasing, the INEC boss said the commission was cooperating with the EFCC and that ultimately members of staff who were culpable would “be shown the way out.”

Yakubu, who called for the establishment of the electoral offences commission and tribunal as prescribed by the Justice Mohammed Uwais and Ahmed Lemu Commissions, noted that inconclusive elections were brought about largely by violence.

He added that the only way to stop electoral  violence was to put in place a mechanism that would punish offenders, arguing that “there are people who believe that they can do anything and get away with it.”

He said that though inconclusive elections were caused by violence and over-voting, Yakubu observed that they were also compounded by the recent evolution of two strong parties as opposed to the past where he said there was only one mega party and smaller ones.

The INEC boss expressed optimism that following representations made by the commission to the Presidency, the outstanding six  National Commissioners and 21 Resident Electoral Commissioners would soon be appointed to replace those whose tenure had lapsed.

source:Punch

 

RUSSIAN WAR PLANES BOMB ISLAMIC STATE IN SYRIA AGAIN

Russian warplanes took off on Tuesday from a base in Iran to target Islamic State fighters and other militants in Syria, Russia's Defense Ministry said, widening Moscow's bombing campaign in Syria in a major development in the country's civil war.

The long-range bombers took off from near the Iranian city of Hamedan, around 280 kilometers (175 miles) southwest of the Iranian capital, and struck targets in three provinces in northern and eastern Syria.

Meanwhile, Syrian opposition activists said a wave of airstrikes on rebel-held parts of the northern city of Aleppo killed at least 15 civilians and wounded many others on Tuesday, but it was not clear whether the strikes were carried out by the Russian or Syrian government's air force.

It is virtually unheard of in Iran's recent history to allow a foreign power to use one of its bases to stage attacks from. Russia has also never used the territory of another country in the Middle East for its operations inside Syria, where it has been carrying out an aerial campaign in support of President Bashar Assad's government for nearly a year.

The announcement suggests cooperation on the highest levels between Moscow and Tehran, both key allies of the embattled president.

It comes a day after Russia's defense minister said Moscow and Washington are edging closer to an agreement on Syria that would help defuse the situation in the besieged northern city of Aleppo.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said the agreement would "allow us to find common ground and start fighting together for bringing peace to that territory," adding that Russian representatives are "in a very active stage of talks with our American colleagues."

A U.S. official said, however, that discussions with the Russians are still ongoing and no agreement is close. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media about the ongoing talks.

Russia and the United States have been discussing greater coordination for striking extremists in Syria, but they have been unable to reach agreement on which militant groups could be targeted.

Russia has criticized what it describes as U.S. reluctance to persuade the Syrian opposition groups it supports to withdraw from areas controlled by al-Qaida's branch in Syria.

In Tehran, the state-run IRNA news agency quoted Ali Shamkhani, the secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, as saying that Tehran and Moscow have exchanged "capacity and possibilities" in the fight against the Islamic State group.

"With constructive and extended cooperation between Iran, Russia and Syria and the resistance front (Hezbollah), the situation has become very tough for terrorists and the trend will continue until the complete destruction of them," Shamkhani said.

Russia and Iran have been expanding their ties in the past months after most of the sanctions against Iran were lifted following the nuclear deal with world powers that put restricted Iran's nuclear program from weapons-grade capability.

A top Russian lawmaker, Adm. Vladimir Komoyedov, said Russia's decision to use a base in Iran will help to cut costs, which is "paramount right now."

The Russian ministry's statement issued said Su-34 and Tu-22M3 bombers took off earlier in the day to target Islamic State and the Nusra Front militants in Aleppo, as well as in Deir el-Zour and Idlib, destroying five major ammunition depots, training camps and three command posts.

The Nusra Front is al-Qaida's branch in Syria. However, the group recently announced it was changing its name to Fath al-Sham and severing ties with the global terror network in an apparent attempt to evade Russian and U.S.-led airstrikes. Russia and the U.S. have dismissed the name change as window-dressing.

The Russian Defense Ministry released a video showing a Russian Tu-22M3 long-range bomber dropping bombs in strikes described as "terrorist objects in Syria."

The nearest air base to Hamedan is Shahid Nojeh Air Base, some 50 kilometers (31 miles) north of the city. The base has seen Russian aircraft land there before. A report in December by the American Enterprise Institute, based off satellite imagery, suggested the air base saw a Russian Su-34 "Fullback" strike fighter land there in late November. It said a Russian Il-76 "Candid" transport plane also landed there around the same time before both took off, suggesting the Su-34 may have suffered a mechanical issue.

The report described the air base as "quite large with a 15,000-foot (4,572-meter) runway, extensive taxiways and multiple hangars and bunkers — all seemingly in good repair." It said it is "ideal for providing covert ground support to Russian combat missions."

Iran's constitution, ratified after its 1979 Islamic Revolution, bans the establishment of any foreign military base in the country. However, nothing bars Iranian officials from allowing foreign countries to use an airfield.

The announcement from Russia marks the first significant stationing of its troops there since World War II, when allied British and Soviet forces invaded Iran to secure oil fields and keep Allied supply lines open.

Russia says its bombing campaign in Syria is focused on extremist groups but it has frequently struck other, including more moderate rebels fighting Assad's forces.

Last week, Russian bombers launched a wave of airstrikes on the city of Raqqa, the Islamic State group's de factor capital in northern Syria, killing at least 20 civilians according to Syrian opposition activists.

Mroue reported from Beirut. Associated Press Writers Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran; Zeina Karam in Beirut and Jon Gambrell in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report.

AP

UK Inflation accelerate, as Pound slump

(Bloomberg) -- U.K. inflation accelerated in July and there were signs of further price pressures with the weak pound leading to the biggest jump in import costs in more than four years.

Consumer-price growth picked up to 0.6 percent from 0.5 percent in June, the Office of National Statistics said in London on Tuesday. Economists had forecast that the rate would stay at 0.5 percent, according to the median forecast in a Bloomberg survey. Input costs surged an annual 4.3 percent last month, ending 32 consecutive declines, while import prices jumped the most since 2011.

After weeks of surveys, the inflation numbers mark the first hard numbers on the economy in the wake of the Brexit vote in June. While the full economic impact of the U.K.'s decision to leave the European Union will take time to be seen, data this week on the labor market, retail sales and the public finances will be scrutinized for clues.

ONS statistician Mike Prestwood said while there's “no obvious impact” yet on headline inflation from the June 23 vote, producer-prices data “suggest the fall in the exchange rate is beginning to push up import prices faced by manufacturers.”

The pound has dropped about 13 percent against the dollar since the referendum. Because of that, the Bank of England expects inflation to reach its 2 percent target faster than previously anticipated, though that didn't stop it responding to Brexit threats with new stimulus this month.

Early upward pressure on prices was largely seen last month in import costs for materials such as metals, parts and chemicals, which rose an annual 6.5 percent.

Factory-gate prices rose 0.3 percent in July from June and were up 0.3 percent year-on-year, the ONS said. That's the first annual increase in more than two years.

AON URGES GOVERNMENT TO ADDRESS JET FUEL SHORTAGE

The Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) has called on the Federal Government to as a matter of urgency address the acute shortage of Jet Fuel that the country has been experiencing in recent times.
The call was made by the Chairman of AON Captain Nogie Meggison on the heels of a consistent unavailability of the product in the past week for airlines to conduct their operations thereby leading to 50% delays or cancellation of flights.
“We have been forced to cry out about the perennial problem at this juncture because it continues to put us in a difficult situation to go an extra mile to fulfill our obligations to our esteemed customers in spite of the inconveniences that go with it. However, we are at the mercy of the oil marketers and many times our hands are tied such that we are left with no other option than to cancel flights,” Meggison declared.
Speaking further, the AON Chairman noted that together with the shortage of Jet A-1 the marketers have been increasing the price consistently to an unbearable point. “Till April this year, I bought Jet A1 Fuel for N105 a liter. About a month ago the price jumped to N145. Two weeks later it rose to about N200 a liter. Today the price has skyrocketed above N200 a litre. This has greatly increased our operational cost.
For instance, considering that the cost of fuel accounts for about 40% of the operational cost of most airlines, the colossal rise in price of the product by over 100% has equally increased the operational cost astronomically. In the light of this, our feasibility studies and financial projections are greatly threatened thereby putting the airlines in a dangerous and difficult financial position.
In spite of all this, we can’t increase ticket prices in order not to discourage our dear customersthat have been seriously stretched due to the economic hard time facing them and their disposable income seriously reduced or erased.
For most of them now the alternative means of travel is going by road; our major competitor. It should be put on record however that road transport uses Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) also known as Petrol, which is highly supported or assisted by the Federal government with exchange rate of N285 and available to marketers. Airlines on the other hand don’t have such foreign exchange support or availability from our government with regards to helping to make Jet Fuel available to airlines or at an affordable price.
PMS forex allocation is being given regularly to importers at N285 to the dollar, and the road transporters don’t pay 5% VAT or the Regulatory 5% Ticket Sales Tax or any of the other multiple taxes being charged to the airlines today, where as much as 35% of a total ticket price are taxes and levies.
And apart from the question of no support in fixed rate of jet fuel, government is not making dollar available for the airlines to carry out their operations. To this end therefore, it would seem like the airlines are being undermined.
During a recent visit to the Honorable Minister of State for Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika, the AON Chairman in the company of a delegation of members called on the Honourable Minister of State for Aviation (HMSA) promised to use his respected office to bear on all those concerned to urgently address the crippling fuel shortage and to come up with a lasting solution, even if it means AON getting forex allocation directly from government to import its own fuel as it is currently being done with PMS.
The Minister assured the delegation of his understanding and promised to look into the matter.“I have mentioned the problem to the GMD of NNPC and there were plans to get the Port Harcourt and Kaduna Refineries on-stream before the end of the 2016 to begin to refine Jet A1 locally so as to make the product more readily available at an affordable price,” Sirika disclosed.
The AON Chairman, Capt. Nogie Meggison therefore appealed for the government to please note that  the operations of domestic airlines is one of the main stay and a pivot for any country’s economy as well as a catalyst for recovery of the fragile Nigerian economy. “We are looking forward to the Honourbale Minister of State for Aviation to come up with a quick fix before the Nigerian airlines are pushed or forced out of business,” he submitted.
AON.