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Nigerian Contract Awarding Scam


Chamber Warns of scam in Nigeria

Jon Woodwards, international business director at Aberdeen and Grampian Chamber of Commerce and director of the West African Action Group (WAAG), warns of the latest scam companies may be facing when bidding for a contract in Nigeria.

Chamber and WAAG member ZOK International Group Ltd approached Jon Woodwards with the suspicion that they had been the subject of a scam.

Russell Kyte, marketing director of ZOK International Group Ltd said: "while bidding for a contract in Nigeria, we received a letter allegedly coming from the Contract Awarding Committee of the Nigerian Ministry of Internal Affairs. The documents we received looked quite official and at first we did not think anything wrong with them.

"In those documents the ‘so-called' Contract Awarding Committee promised us we would win the contract. We received one document called ‘Contract Acceptance Form B2' that asked us to return the form with a mandatory acceptance fee of US $3,000. It was then that we got suspicious and approached Aberdeen and Grampian Chamber of Commerce to ask for their advice."

Jon Woodwards said: "The promise to win a contract could be quite usual business practice; however, in that case the $3,000 acceptance fee was an alarm bell for us. We decided to contact the British Deputy High Commission in Lagos to verify the validity of the letters and forms received by ZOK International Group Ltd."

The trade development manager of the British Deputy High Commission in Lagos confirmed that the request for payment for a contract agreement was indeed a scam. Amongst other checks, he contacted the Ministry of Internal Affairs directly to ask whether it is normal practice to seek a contract acceptance payment. They explained that there are no such fees and that it is definitely not normal practice.

Jon Woodwards added: "I encourage any company that receives suspicious contract offers of that kind to contact the West African Action Group or UKTI to verify the particular offer. This way we can warn other businesses early and prevent the spread of the scam."