Posted by By EMMANUEL MAYAH on
EMMANUEL MAYAH rips open the dirty deals that attend Nigeria Export Promotion Council and FG trade missions hijacked by non-exporters who settle their way into procuring visas to abscond on arrival. It is a tale of serving dogs food meant for the children on the strength of bribery and corrupt profiteering.
EMMANUEL MAYAH rips open the dirty deals that attend Nigeria Export Promotion Council and FG trade missions hijacked by non-exporters who settle their way into procuring visas to abscond on arrival. It is a tale of serving dogs food meant for the children on the strength of bribery and corrupt profiteering.
The scam must be the most incredible success story in the history of visa racketeering. While in the black market of Nigeria's travel business, would-be immigrants are literally selling their blood and paying as much as N350, 000 for a Turkish visa and over N80, 000 for South African, a syndicate has laid out one of the most fabulous underhand scheme that delivers its clients, on arrival in their dream countries in Europe, Asia or America, into the waiting hands of smiling officials. No blood-chilling checks by Immigration and no second look from stern policemen. To boot, forty percent of the Immigrant's air ticket is unwittingly paid by Nigeria's taxpayers.
Even the most hopeful racketeer, weaned on the maxim that anything is possible in Nigeria, would still have taken this newest scam with a pinch of salt. Anyone familiar with the multi-million naira racket of oversea travels can supply the uncanny details of Nigerians stowing away in cargo ships, camping outside embassies, crossing the Sahara desert on foot or repackaging themselves as pious pilgrims. The story is even told of a female youth corp member, who while serving in Akwa Ibom State, wangled a fake marriage and an inevitable sexual alliance with a traditional ruler all in the bid to join his entourage on his next London trip. But all these, known as escape stories in street parlance, may have become outmoded in view of activities going on in the Nigerian Export Promotion Council.
It is not exactly known how long the visa syndicates have penetrated the Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC), routinely compromising officials at its Abuja, Lagos and Kano offices. Just last August, the footprints of the syndicates became detectable during the Council's preparation for trade missions to South Korea and China. The NEPC had announced it was leading several Nigerian exporters on a five-day trade mission to Seoul. The mission was touted as an effort towards opening up new markets as well as growing Nigeria's non-oil exports. It was gathered that the trade mission was a follow-up to the inward trade mission to Nigeria by the Korean importers association in October 2006.
The Managing Director of a Lagos-based, agro-allied export firm (names withheld) was one of the enthusiastic exporters that responded to the NEPC trade mission announcement. His company which deals in charcoal, cashew nut, ginger and wood had managed on its own to export products to India, the USA, Spain and Netherlands. He told Saturday Sun that when he visited the Ladipo Oluwole street office of the NEPC at Apapa Lagos, he purchased the application form for N500. Later he was invited for screening; the purpose of which he was told was to ensure that only genuine exporters made the trip. Sundry fees of $50 and N7,000 were later paid. The later was for visa. He had to travel to Abuja to submit his passport.
A letter from NEPC, dated August 9, 2007 and signed by one O. Oyegun, notified him of his nomination to participate in the trade mission. The letter informed him that: 'Your company, having scaled through a diligent and rigorous screening exercise has been selected for the event". He was required to submit an acceptance letter on or before August 20, 2007. His company was further requested to submit samples of its products, to a maximum of 30kg, on or before August 25. The letter also stated that delegates for South Korea would depart Nigeria on September 1 by Emirate Airline while those shortlisted for Xiamen, China for International Trade Fair for Investment and Trade (CIFIT) would leave on 6th of the same month by the same airline. It ended with a message of congratulations.
For exporters who under the Obasanjo regime had had to literally do everything for themselves, including scouring the internet for buyers for their product, the proposed trade mission was a breath of fresh air. However, when this exporter arrived the NEPC headquarters in Abuja, a different kettle of fish was awaiting him and many others. Narrating his experience to Saturday Sun he said:
'I arrived Abuja where me and my deputy had to lodge in a hotel. For years we had been doing business like sheep without shepherd. One thing is finding interested buyers on the net but the moment you say you are from Nigeria, you have turned them off. I can tell you there are many local exporters in the same predicament.
So you can imagine our shock when we got to Abuja to pay for our visa only to find strange faces amongst us. These were people who did not participate in the screening. We had never seen them anywhere before. It was so easy to tell they were not exporters. In our discussions, they could not even speak the language of the trade. They were not people who belonged to our association; we had never met them at any agro-allied forum. Perhaps reading our countenance, the NEPC officials saw it necessary to reassure us that there was nothing amiss. After the payment, we were asked to go home and prepare for the trip."
Being an exporter who understood what it meant to go a trade mission, this Managing Director further said that after paying for his visa, he went to the bank and borrowed money, purchased some produce and shipped them in advance so that by the time he arrived Korea and China, his products would be ready for exhibition.
To everyone's horror, the products arrived Korea and China. Their exporters never did. The Managing Director said his company was dropped at the last minute. He swore that none of the companies screened made it to Korea, rather it was those that came in 'through the back door". He gave the name of another company that also lost money shipping products to Seoul and Xiamen only to be turned down as Shallom Nigeria Limited. When contacted on the botched trip, a director of the company, Mr. Ahmed told Saturday Sun that Shallom lost over $15,000.
'The people there knew what they were doing. They used delay tactics. They led us on a wild goose chase. They kept postponing the date of departure, then in the last minute they told us the embassy refused us visa. When did they find out that the embassy had denied us visa? We lost money not only in purchasing products and shipping them but we had to also rent warehouses over there for our products."
Asked why the South Korean embassy denied them visa, the affected exporters said the reason advanced by NEPC officials was that the Nigerian embassy in Seoul failed to write its counterpart in Abuja to say that all the exporters would return to Nigeria after the exhibition. To that Ahmed responds: 'I told them to look at my age. I am a director of a company. I have been in the export business for over 15 years. Would I abandon my family and business here in Nigeria to stay back in Korea to be doing exactly what?"
Many of the exporters spoken to were in agreement that it is the duty of the NEPC to screen and vet and select genuine exporters as well as provide the required assurances to whosoever needs it. If they cannot do these, one of the exporters quipped: 'Why are they there in the first place?" Indeed, all the local exporters are seeking answers to the true identity of those who made it to Seoul and why they were not affected by the so-called failure of the Nigerian embassy to send a letter vouching their willingness to return after the exhibition. They also want to know how many of the participants to the trade mission did actually return.
Back door
Investigations by Saturday Sun revealed that last year alone, the NEPC organized trade missions, participated in International trade fairs as well as what is called contact promotion programmes in 15 countries including the USA, United Kingdom, Malaysia, South Korea, China, South Africa, India and United Arab Emirate.
A Lagos-based travel agent, Mike Onwudinjo, explained that given the attractive profile of the NEPC, it was only a matter of time before syndicates swarm to it like bees to honey. He cited such government organs as the Ministry of External Affairs, Ministry of Labour, Ministry of Sports, local government councils and even governor's offices as places where Nigerians desperate to travel abroad have acquired false or stolen identity to procure visa. With the prevailing black market rate, Onwudinjo insisted there was no way any Immigrant could have made the trade mission list without coughing out as much as N250,000. He explained: 'But it all depends on the destination. In this business, I have seen a Nigerian paying as much as N900,000 for a visa to France.
That was in 1998. Many will pay anything to get the US or UK visa. So if NEPC is packaging a trip to these places, the fee would be anything between N400,000 and N600,000, much more than what you pay for South Korea. It may interest you to know that since Turkey joined the European Union, visa fee for Turkey in the black market has shot up to N350,000, even N400,000. The mad rush by Nigerians for Turkey visa is simple: If you can enter Turkey, it becomes easier to slip into other parts of Europe.
Further investigations revealed that getting clients to queue up for trade mission trip has always been a piece of cake for the syndicates. All the participants to Seoul and Xiamen had 40 percent of the airfare defrayed by the federal government. This was said to always be an added incentive during pre-travel negotiations.
Indian connection
Cosmos Ugbenije, a lumpwood charcoal exporter who said he had over the years learnt to survive on his own, introduced another dimension to the trade mission mess. He told Saturday Sun that the ineptitude visible in the NEPC is promoted by Asians, particularly Indians who he said control the raw material and agro-allied export business.
'It is to the ultimate benefit of the Indians that things do not work in NEPC. They are the ones who want to buy up the cocoa, cashew nuts, chilli pepper, dried ginger and everything. They determine at what price the poor farmers sell to them. The problem of local exporters is the stifling competitions we face from Indians. One of these foreign competitors is Olam Nigeria Limited and they are playing in the big market. So when you hear that Nigeria exported agricultural products worth $111.2 million in the first quarter of 2007, the question you should ask is who the exporters are?"
Ugbenije said he is grieved that while the duty of the NEPC is fundamentally to help find new markets for the nation's non-oil export, officials of the Council are busy serving their personal interests and those of their Asian paymasters.
'The officials are selling forms to exporters in the name of trade mission but from the back they are collecting money from people who have no business with export. Our interest as exporters is to be taken to countries where we can find markets for our products, but that is hardly the agenda of the NEPC officials. They are more interested in organizing trips to those countries where misguided Nigerians want to run to."
Saturday Sun gathered that after the aborted trip to Seoul, some of the exporters were invited to participate in another trade mission; this time to South Africa in apparent gesture of compensation. But all of them said no. Reacting to the invitation, Ahmed of Shallom Nigeria Limited spat angrily:
'Many of us told them we were not interested. The products we shipped to South Korea are still there wasting away. Then you are inviting us to go to South Africa to go through the same process again? In any case, South Africa is not the right market for our kind of products, the market is Asia and America."
NEPC reacts
At the Lagos office of the NEPC on Ladipo Oluwole Street Apapa, mum was the word as Saturday Sun was directed to reach the Abuja office for official response.
In the morning of Thursday, January 10, this reporter contacted the Secretary to the Council's Executive Director who in turn directed him to one Mr. Oyeyepo of Operations department,
Speaking on the Korean experience, Oyeyepo said the trade mission couldn't have been more successful. He denied any knowledge of visa racketeering but admitted that some local exporters were unable to make the trip. He claimed that the exporters did not go simply because they failed to turn up at the airport.
'I can tell you that that was not the first time it would happen. These people are in the category of exporters we call weak exporters. It is these people that NEPC assists to pay part of their airfare. But sometimes the NEPC purchases these tickets and the weak exporters are unable to fulfill their own side of the bargain. Even with rebate, they cannot afford to pay the other part of their airfare. The NEPC also pay for the pavilions in which they exhibit their products."
Told of the exporters who ahead of the trade mission shipped their products to South Korea but were told they had been denied visa, Oyeyipo said he was unaware of it but if it did happen such was isolated.