When Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest man, decided to build a refinery, he knew it was going to be a hard task — no major refinery had worked optimally in Nigeria for almost 30 years. However, since the completion of the refinery in 2024, Dangote has faced more battles than anticipated. He has to deal with the challenges of getting crude oil to refine, finding retailers to sell to, and very recently, being the subject of anti-west propaganda machinery.
While building the refinery, the Nigerian government promised to provide Dangote with the crude oil feedstock the refinery would need to produce petroleum products for Nigerians. However, the events of the last 18 months, including a change of government and the country’s crude oil production and fiscal position, have made that promise harder to keep.
President Bola Tinubu recently had to wade in, after many accusations and counter-accusations between the Dangote Refinery and the state oil company, NNPCL. Tinubu mandated a crude oil deal between the Dangote Refinery and the state oil company. Announcing the agreement on September 15, 2024, Wale Edun, Nigeria’s minister of finance told journalists after the Federal Executive Council meeting, that “from the 1st of October, NNPCL will commence the supply of approximately 385,000 barrels per day of crude oil to the Dangote Refinery, which will be paid for in Naira”.
DISINFORMATION MACHINERY KICKS IN
Following the announcement of this deal, news stories from beyond the country began reporting that Nigeria was dumping the United States Dollar as a currency of international trade. “Nigeria Officially Ditches US Dollar Ahead of BRICS Summit,” read one of the headlines from Watcher’s Guru, a news outlet best known for reporting cryptocurrency news.
According to the website, Nigeria’s decision was a “strategic initiative” to “enhance the stability and growth” of the country’s economy. It added that Nigeria “will settle trade dealings in its local Naira and other alternative currencies” other than USD.
The same report, in exact words and otherwise, has been shared across various YouTube Channels insisting that Nigeria is getting rid of the United States Dollar as its currency for international trade. The YouTube channels parroting the story all claim to be pan-African in approach. These channels, which cumulatively have nearly two million subscribers, often use AI-generated voiceovers to narrate Nigeria’s “decision to dump the USD” and further drive the possibility of a new global currency. The leading channels in the group include We Love Africa, Africa Reloaded, Afro Page, Africa is Powerful and Black Culture Diary.
A similar network of accounts also exists on X (formerly Twitter), pushing the same false narrative. BRICS Info, an X handle that reports issues around the Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa bloc of nations, also claimed to its one million followers that Nigeria is ditching the USD. Other accounts like Megatron, Russian Market, African Hub, Global Eye News, MintPress News, and First Post shared similar claims.
BRICS SUMMIT AND A NEW CURRENCY
Two weeks after these posts went viral on social media, leaders of the BRICS nations and partners, including Russia’s Vladimir Putin, China’s Xi Jinping, and India’s Narendra Modi all travelled to Kazan, Russia for the 2024 BRICS summit from October 22 to 24. The summit, was held in clear parallel to the World Bank/IMF Annual Meetings, which took place from October 22 to 25. At the Kazan summit, the New Development Bank, which is BRICS’ answer to self-financing, unveiled a dummy banknote, which is being reported by the same network of accounts as BRICS’ answer to the dollar.
The image below, which is used to lead the story is from the event page for the summit, which says nothing about the note but says “Russian President Vladimir Putin after the meeting of the heads of BRICS delegations in an expanded format as part of the XVI BRICS summit in Kazan.”
According to multiple social media posts, the Nigerian flag is on the dummy banknote with the country’s name written in Hausa. However, the outcome of the summit, reported by BRICS as the Kazan Declaration, says nothing about the bank note or Nigeria’s involvement in any of it.
NIGERIA HAS NOT DITCHED THE US DOLLAR
The West African economic power has not dumped the greenback, as these media outlets may suggest. While it is true that the country indeed made a local oil deal in naira to avoid strain on its foreign reserves, the country is still trading with the US dollar internationally.
Olayemi Cardoso, governor of Nigeria’s Central Bank, announced on November 7, 2024, that Nigeria’s foreign exchange reserve had climbed to $40 billion, the highest in almost three years, showing Nigeria’s continued interest in USD trade. Data from the CBN show that Nigeria continues to hold its reserves for international trade in USD. As of Dec 9, 2024, the bank held $40,376,482,861.33 of its reserves in dollars.
Therefore, it is false that the country is ditching the USD for other alternative currencies. The reports are a clear example of foreign actors using a local story to manipulate and influence the information landscape in Nigeria.
