Central Bank Will Use $3billion Loan-For-Crude Oil Funds To Stabilise Country’s Naira – NEC Assures Nigerians
The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited had in August said it secured an emergency $3 billion crude oil repayment loan to stabilise the country’s exchange rates.
The Nigerian government has stated that $3billion emergency loan-for-crude oil secured in August would be deployed to stabilise the naira.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited had in August said it secured an emergency $3 billion crude oil repayment loan to stabilise the country’s exchange rates.
The company had said this in a tweet, adding that the $3 billion was from AFREXIM Bank, the trade finance bank for Africa.
According to NNPCL, the money will be used to increase the value of the country’s currency, naira, at the international market.
However, the Nasarawa State Governor, Abdullahi Sule, while speaking to Journalists at the end of 136th National Economic Council meeting held on Thursday at the Aso Rock Presidential Villa, Abuja said the $3billion that was taken in order to stabilise the naira would be put to use.
He asserted that the National Economic Council had affirmed that the $3bn emergency loan-for-crude oil the Federal Government secured in August would be deployed to stabilise the naira, whose value had continued to fluctuate in the Investors & Exporters’ window and worsened in the parallel market, hitting N1000/$ earlier this month.
He said, “So, we are very confident and we still believe very strongly that with the plan that will come out and with all these items that have been listed on the improvement of revenue, the $3bn shall be useful to us down the line.”
Asked when the intervention would kick in and if there would be a need for a supplementary budget, Sule said “The $3bn that was taken in order to stabilise the naira. As you have seen we have a new team at the CBN and the new team that is just coming in is asking for a little bit of time in order to work out the modalities.
“It is one thing to take the loan, it is another to plan the process of the stabilisation because it’s going to take a while. The CBN governor was just confirmed a few days back and he started rolling out his plans of what to do.”
On the supplementary budget, Sule said, “Supplementary budget is a request that will come as a result of whatever is happening right now. I’m not sure there is a need for a supplementary budget immediately. So far, there have been no supplementary budget requests that were presented to NEC.”
