The immediate past Governor of the Central bank of Nigeria
(CBN), Prof Charles Soludo was on Thursday arrested by officials of the
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in connection with the
alleged Australian polymer banknotes bribery scam.
In 2006, CBN under Prof Soludo awarded the printing contract of its
20 naira polymer note to Securency International, a subsidiary of the
Reserve Bank of Australia.
According to Proshare, an Australian newspaper ‘The Age,’ reported
that Securency International, which manufactures polymer used in
banknotes in 28 countries, paid “kickbacks” to secure polymer note
printing contracts in some countries, including Nigeria.
The report revealed a total of 750 million naira ($4.6 million) was
paid as bribes, with millions of dollars transferred into offshore bank
accounts of two British-based businessmen for onward transfer to top
Nigerian government functionaries.
Between 2006 and 2008, Securency has supplied 1.9 billion banknotes
to the apex bank, in what is reportedly the Australian minter’s biggest
African deal.
EFCC’s Acting Head of Media and Publicity, Mr. Wilson Uwujaren,
confirmed to THISDAY that: “We have Soludo in our custody, among several
other suspects, and it is part of an ongoing investigation over his
involvement in the award of contract and printing of polymer banknotes
when he was the governor of the CBN.”
The former bank chief-turned-politician, is credited with
strengthening the capitalization of Nigerian banks to 25 billion naira
($160 million) thereby forcing the eradication of poorly capitalized
financial lenders in the country.
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