“We Criminalize Wealthy People” – Stakeholders On Bode George’s FX Claims

“I think we are dangerously getting to a point where we criminalize wealthy people even if they are not in public office. The attacks on Elumelu and co seem based on nothing but that they are rich.” this is the summation of stakeholders’ responses to wild claims against two major contributors to the nation’s economy – Tony Elumelu and Herbert Wigwe.

Wigwe, his wife – Chizoba, Son – Chizzy and friend, Abimbola Ogunbanjo – a former chairman of the NGX – died in a helicopter crash that happened around California in the United States of America (USA) on Friday, February 9, 2024.

The wild assertions against Elumelu and Wigwe were made by Olabode George, the 78 years old former Military Governor and politician, who labeled them “stupendously rich” but asked “what are they producing” in blanket allegations of foreign exchange manipulation against bank chiefs in the country – while particularly targeting the two in a viral video interview.

He made them before Wigwe’s demise but they became viral after SocietyNow.Ng’s checks revealed.

Stakeholders have, however, severely faulted the position of the 78-year-old on the kings of commerce.

“I may not always agree with bankers or some of their methods but to ascribe economic success to being a manufacturing company is clearly disingenuous, You basically disrespect all the hardwork being done with the financial services space, fintech, and technology as a whole” Ugodre Obi- Chukuwu, the founder of the soar away, Nairametrics.com pointed out and bolstered it with the explainer that “Do we need manufacturing in this country? Yes! But they will not do as well as banks if they do not manufacture what the world values the most. Today, the world values technology services, renewables and financial services. And by the way, banks are by design one of the largest businesses in the world for obvious reasons.”

“In fact top 20 companies in the world by profits include 8 banks ” he added and gave the names as “CCB, JP Morgan, Bank of America, Bank of China, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Wells Fargo, Citi Group, China Development Bank”.

United Bank for Africa (UBA) pan- African financial services group with Tony Elumelu as Chairman operates in 20 countries across Africa, the United Kingdom, France, the UAE, and is the only African bank with a commercial deposit taking presence in the United States. It provides corporate, commercial, SME and consumer banking services to more than 35 million customers globally according to information available to SocietyNow.Ng.

While Access Bank, which is part of Access Corporation ( Access Holdings Plc), is also one of Africa’s largest retail banks by customer base and total assets – the parent company with Wigwe as Chief Executive Officer is a multinational financial services organisation that offers commercial banking, lending, payment, pension, insurance, and asset management services operating through a network of more than 700 branches and service outlets, spanning three continents, 20 countries, and 60+ million customers managed by about 30,000 employees.

Reports say Wigwe was a very influential player in arranging project funding in Africa, a feat believed to have helped in setting the very ambitious Wigwe University with the vision of rivaling top universities in the world by elevating educational standards while creating a unique African experience.

“..the funding of such a historic landmark investment would have likely involved a structured funding arrangement from willing investors to fund Wigwe University’s take-off. Indeed, observers have rightly asked: what is wrong with naming a tertiary institution you arranged funding for after your family and building a legacy that will outlive you?” Femi Awoyemi the founder of leading financial information hub, Proshare addressed George’s questioning of how Wigwe was able to fund the visionary project.

“UBA’s Tony Elumelu was never a ‘floor banker‘ because no such banking position or designation existed” Awoyemi equally corrected a wrong attribution to Elumelu by Bode George and quoted an anonymous economic adviser who noted that ” …I think we are dangerously getting to a point where we criminalize wealthy people even if they are not in public office. The attacks on Elumelu and co seem based on nothing but that they are rich.” and also added “In the absence of any specific evidence or allegation of a crime against them, are these the kinds of statements we should be making with such ease?”.

Elumelu, one of the particular targets of the politician, is a very active part of the Nigerian economic wheel across different sectors – which provides a window into his “stupendously rich” status.

He is the Chairman of Nigeria’s largest quoted conglomerate, Transcorp with subsidiaries that include one of the leading producers of electricity Transcorp Power, and leader by kilometres hospitality brand, Transcorp Hotels.

Under Elumelu’s guidance, Transcorp Power became the first power company to meet all the requirements and get a Discharge Certificate since the power sector privatization commenced in 2013 checks by SocietyNow.Ng confirmed.

“Transcorp Power is able to deliver power efficiently and it is able to do so even way beyond the expectations of the PAP” immediate past Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo – who was the chairman of the National Council on Privatization – declared in testifying to the company’s excellent services, during the presentation of the Discharge Certificate to Transcorp Power on May 8, 2023. He was still in office at the time.

Another pointer to the unrelenting progress was the acquisition of a 60% stake in Abuja Electricity Distribution Company by a Transcorp-led Consortium to become the strategic investor.

Christopher Ezeafulukwe under whose watch Transcorp Power Ugehlli increased capacity from 160MW to 680.83MW in 4 years outperforming the Bureau of Public Enterprise’s (BPE) five-year target of 670MW is now the Chief Executive Officer at Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) in what is described as Elumelu’s unending value-adding moves.

In its last financial results in Q3 of 2023, Transcorp reported an impressive revenue of N128 billion in Q3 2023, compared to N96.2 billion in Q3 2022 .

Another huge investment that boosts Elumelu’s rating is Heirs Oil & Gas, the upstream oil and gas company, whose assets include Nigerian oil block OML17, with a current production capacity of 50,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day and 2P reserves of 1.2 billion barrels of oil equivalent, with an additional 1 billion barrels of oil equivalent resources of further exploration potential. He is the chairman of the company that is “committed to creating resource-based added value on the African continent”.

In adding value to the African Continent the captain of industry created the Tony Elumelu Foundation in 2010. Aimed at empowering a new generation of African entrepreneurs, catalysing economic growth, driving poverty eradication and driving job creation across all 54 African countries, the Foundation’s flagship programme has identified and catalysed nearly 16,000 entrepreneurs and created a digital ecosystem of over one million Africans, as part of a ten year US$100m commitment to fund, mentor and train young Africans added information available to SocietyNow.Ng revealed.

Interestingly, Elumelu remains at the forefront of resolving the FX crisis that prompted the wild claims by Bode George that stakeholders have shut down.

Among other things, on December 29, 2023, Afreximbank and UBA closed a $3.3 billion liquidity support for Nigeria through a structured financing arrangement with NNPC Limited.

UBA acted as the Local Arranger and Onshore Account Bank for the transaction which has seen the disbursement of an initial US$2.25 million to relieve the nation’s challenging FX Liquidity status.

On January 8, 2024, UBA joined the elite group of companies with a market capitalization of over N1 trillion with its share value hitting N29.90 per share.