Dollar value of Peter Obi’s investment in SABMiller ​is about $3.7m — Anambra govt

Given the repeated fake news about the current dollar value of the investment by the Peter Obi administration in SABMiller, it has become imperative to clarify the matter in public interest.

The Peter Obi Administration invested the sum of N1,955,535,247.00 (equivalent of approximately US$12,616,356.43 at the then average CBN exchange rate of N155.00/$1.00) in Intafact Beverages Limited, a green-field brewery being set up in Onitsha by SABMiller Breweries of South Africa in 2012. The Naira equivalent of this investment is stated and carried in the Reports of the State Accountant General with the Financial Statements for the fiscal years ended 31st December since then. These are public documents.

According to Ifeatu Onejeme, Commissioner of Finance, Intafact Beverages was subsequently consolidated into International Breweries Plc when the parent company, SABMiller of South Africa was acquired by Anheuser-Busch InBev (AB InBev), the world’s largest brewer. Based on this development, AB InBev consolidated and merged all its brewery operations in Nigeria under International Breweries Plc and all shareholders of Intafact Beverages Limited, including Anambra State Government (ANSG), received shares of International Breweries Plc for their respective investments.

ANSG received and still holds 407,321,264 ordinary shares of International Breweries Plc in exchange for its investment in Intafact Beverages Limited . Based on the NGX closing price of N5.50 as at 20/6/22, these shares were valued at N2,240,266,952 on that date. Based on the Central Bank of Nigeria I&E exchange rate of N415.75/US$1.00 on same June 20, 2022, this investment was valued at an equivalent of approximately US$5,388,495.37 (and at N604/$1.00 parallel market rate, only US$3,709,051.24).

We do not want to join issues with the purveyors of the fake news but only need to state the facts to inform the public.

Meanwhile, considering the controversy the clarification of Anambra State Government has generated, Peter Obi Support Network in a terse statement which a copy was made available to Newsband, has urged the administration of professor Chukwuma Soludo to release details of Peter Obi’s administration dollar investment.

Mr Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the Labour Party, and the former governor of Anambra state had stated in his handover notes to former Governor Wilie Obiano, on the 17 March 2014 that he made a total of 156-million-dollar investments as follows: with Access Bank USD50 Million, Diamond Bank USD 56 Million and with Fidelity Bank USD 50 Million (The current value of the dollar investment is more than 93 billion Naira).

The Group also thanked Governor Chukwuma Soludo for the admission by Ifeatu Onejeme, Anambra Commissioner of Finance, that “The Peter Obi Administration invested the sum of N1,955,535,247.00 (equivalent of approximately US$12,616,356.43 at the then average CBN exchange rate of N155.00/$1.00) in Intafact Beverages Limited, a green-field brewery being set up in Onitsha by SABMiller Breweries of South Africa in 2012.”

POSN noted that after repeated denial by Fmr. Gov. Willie Obiano, at least the government of Anambra State, through the State Commissioner for Finance has openly admitted the investment of Mr. Peter Obi. This is what Nigerians want to hear!

The statement reads, “The decision of Anambra state government to confirm that the former governor of Anambra state, Peter Obi Invested state funds in SABMiller is a welcome development after repeated denials by his predecessor, former governor, Willie Obiano.

“It is obvious with the statement by Anambra Commissioner of Finance, Ifeatu Onejeme that Peter Obi during his administration invested state funds while other governors were borrowing their states into penury.

“This is a confirmation that Peter Obi is a good manager of resources, and further confirms what former Minister of Finance, Mrs Ngozi Okonjo-Iwealla wrote in her book that the former governor of Anambra was hammering on Investment of resources while other governors were talking about sharing the resources during the era oil boom.

“We therefore request that the state commissioner of Finance do take a step further and release all details of the millions of dollars saved for the state by Peter Obi’s administration before he handed over to the former governor, Willie Obiano, so that *Ndi Anambra* and Nigerians will know the truth about the condition of state resources when Peter Obi handed over to Willie Obiano”, the statement concluded