While Nigerians struggled for dollars for businesses, imports and academic programs, buying as much as N370 from the back market, Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, scooped $101 million in just 11 weeks as benefit for buying forex directly from CBN at between 197 and 199, according to Reuters.

Reuters says it examined foreign currency transactions made during an 11-week period in March to May this year. Over that time, Dangote businesses were able to buy at least $161 million in hard currency from the central bank.

That was around nine percent of all the hard currency the bank sold over the period. In a single week in March, one dollar in every eight went to Dangote companies.

Compared with buying dollars on the more expensive unofficial market, though, Dangote companies benefited to the tune of about $100 million.

In simpler terms, the government sold dollars to him at subsidized rates compared to the actual value in parallel market.

Dangote’s purchases were entirely legal. The government had said it provide forex directly to Dangote’s firms partly because of his promise to build a refinery.

Reuters’ calculations are based on foreign exchange purchase data which the Nigerian government required banks to publish. Reuters examined every transaction that Dangote’s companies made between March 1 and May 13. One newspaper, This Day, calculated a weekly total of all the published official transactions. Reuters used this total to analyze Dangote’s share.

In the period Reuters analyzed, the average black market rate was around 320, according to AbokiFX, a Lagos financial company. The difference against the official rate equated to about 20 billion naira ($101 million).

http://www.freespch.com/2016/06/23/dangote-gained-101-million-in-just-11-weeks-by-buying-cheap-dollars-from-govt-reuters/

Its Alhaji na... All govt bow at his feet