The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL) has secured a $3 billion emergency crude repayment loan to support the naira and stabilise the foreign exchange market.

NNPCL secured the crude-for-cash funding from AFRIEXIM bank headquarters in Cairo, Egypt.

However, information reaching us indicates that the NNPC will repay the loan with crude oil at an interest rate between eight percent and 11 percent.

“The NNPCL and AfriEXIM bank have jointly signed a commitment letter and Termsheet for an emergency $3 billion crude oil repayment loan,” NNPCL said in a terse statement yesterday.

The loan will save Nigeria from approaching the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for loans, and bring respite to the local currency, which had depreciated significantly against the dollar over the past week.
The naira depreciated on Friday to close the week at an all-time low of N950 to the dollar at the parallel market.

On Monday, President Bola Tinubu met with the acting CBN governor, Folashodun Sonubi, who said the apex bank will roll out its plans to stabilise the naira.
The local currency appreciated yesterday, recovering from N950 per dollar to N890 to the greenback.

Nigeria produced an average of 1.08 million barrels of oil per day in July 2023.(Source: thecable.ng)