June 11, 2010
Oando, a prominent oil trading company, is fast gaining a reputation of being a rabid tax dodger judging by its tax practices that rob the Nigerian economy of badly needed cash. According to its 2009 annual report, the Nigerian-owned Oando revealed that its oil exploration, refining and distribution company earned less than half its profits. Instead a subsidiary of Oando registered in Bermuda, made huge profits from "trading" through a company called Oando Trading Ltd, also registered in Bermuda.
Oando, a prominent oil trading company, is fast gaining a reputation of being a rabid tax dodger judging by its tax practices that rob the Nigerian economy of badly needed cash. According to its 2009 annual report, the Nigerian-owned Oando revealed that its oil exploration, refining and distribution company earned less than half its profits. Instead a subsidiary of Oando registered in Bermuda, made huge profits from "trading" through a company called Oando Trading Ltd, also registered in Bermuda.
This fraudulent claim helped Oando avoid a sizeable tax bill - monies that could have gone into the Nigerian economy. Oanda, which receives investments from Britain’s publicly-owned international development fund CDC, formerly the Commonwealth Development Corporation, is looking increasingly like an African Enron, to judge by recent results. UK Private Eye reports that last year Oando reported profits before tax of $94.8m, of which $48.4m were earned through its trading subsidiary. But Oando's Bermuda office doesn’t actually do any oil trading or even have an office or personnel there. The effect of this most blatant tax avoidance scam is to deprive the Nigerian economy of tax at 35 percent, or around $17 million. It becoming a standard practice that most Nigerian companies making and declaring huge profits -either real or fake- don't actually pay taxes. Some of them, like another gargantuan contract gulping company like Wale Babalakin's Bi-Courtney, don't even have a website. Oando, on its website, describes itself as “the nation’s leading oil retailer, selling and distributing one in every five litres of petroleum products in Nigeria via over 600 retail service stations and other strategic assets like our 2 lubes blending plants, 3 terminals, 9 LPG filling plants and we are still counting.”
This fraudulent claim helped Oando avoid a sizeable tax bill - monies that could have gone into the Nigerian economy. Oanda, which receives investments from Britain’s publicly-owned international development fund CDC, formerly the Commonwealth Development Corporation, is looking increasingly like an African Enron, to judge by recent results. UK Private Eye reports that last year Oando reported profits before tax of $94.8m, of which $48.4m were earned through its trading subsidiary. But Oando's Bermuda office doesn’t actually do any oil trading or even have an office or personnel there. The effect of this most blatant tax avoidance scam is to deprive the Nigerian economy of tax at 35 percent, or around $17 million. It becoming a standard practice that most Nigerian companies making and declaring huge profits -either real or fake- don't actually pay taxes. Some of them, like another gargantuan contract gulping company like Wale Babalakin's Bi-Courtney, don't even have a website. Oando, on its website, describes itself as “the nation’s leading oil retailer, selling and distributing one in every five litres of petroleum products in Nigeria via over 600 retail service stations and other strategic assets like our 2 lubes blending plants, 3 terminals, 9 LPG filling plants and we are still counting.”
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