Nigeria

Nigerian oil firm Oando said on Monday it has secured a 94.6 billion naira ($475 mln) loan facility from 10 domestic banks under plans to restructure its finances and return to profitability this year, Reuters reported. The financing led by Access Bank, includes Diamond Bank, Ecobank, FCMB, Fidelity Bank, Stanbic IBTC Bank, UBA , Union Bank and Zenith Bank. The facility is a five-year term loan, paying Nigerian interbank rate plus 2 percentage points with a three-year moratorium on principal.

Plummeting oil prices have set off an economic unraveling in Nigeria, one of the world’s top oil producers, and the collective anger of a fed-up nation was pouring out, the International New York Times reported. “Starvation in the land of plenty,” said Tony Usidamen, a public relations consultant waiting for fuel. For months, many Nigerians have endured painfully long lines for gasoline and power failures that last for days — with no fuel for backup generators. Scant power means water cuts for homes that rely on electricity to pump it.

To stem an ongoing fall in foreign reserves caused by the oil price crash, Nigeria’s central bank introduced restrictions last summer that have effectively blocked imports of hundreds of items that typically enter Nigeria through its ports, the Financial Times reported. The policy, backed by President Muhammadu Buhari, also aims to boost local manufacturing and agriculture. The country has long used its oil revenues to bring in essential items such as steel and palm oil that the Buhari administration says should be made locally.

Nigeria’s central bank on Tuesday hiked its key lending rate four months after lowering it, as Africa’s largest economy navigates a perilous combination of record inflation and the worst growth in 17 years, The Wall Street Journal reported. Governor Godwin Emefiele said the bank would lift the rate to 12%, up 1 percentage point. That is meant to curb inflation, which rose to a three-year high of 11.4%, last month: “The balance of risk should be tilted toward price stability,” he said.

Stakeholders have expressed support for a new bill that repeals and re-enacts the 37-year-old Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act, Business Day Online reported. The new bill – Bankruptcy and Insolvency (repeal and re-enactment) bill, 2015 – also provides for corporate and individual insolvency to provide for the rehabilitation of the insolvent debtor as well as create the Office of the Supervisor of Insolvency.

A currency crunch in Africa’s top economy is escalating into a French fry shortage, The Wall Street Journal reported. U.S. dollars have become increasingly scarce over the past 18 months as global oil prices crashed, depriving Nigeria of most of its export revenue. So the central bank has toughened rules governing how easily businesses can purchase them. That helped the central bank freeze its reserves at about $28 billion, down around 20% from a year ago. But commerce is paying the price.

Nigeria has asked the World Bank and African Development Bank for $3.5bn in emergency loans to fill a growing gap in its budget in the latest sign of the economic damage being wrought on oil-rich nations by tumbling crude prices, the Financial Times reported. The request from the eight-month-old government of President Muhammadu Buhari is intended to help fund a $15bn state deficit, which has been deepened by a hefty increase in public spending as the west African country attempts to stimulate a slowing economy.

Economists have for months been criticising foreign exchange controls introduced to defend Nigeria’s currency against speculative attack. Now the restrictions are biting the country’s international jet set, who are, to their embarrassment and frustration, finding their debit cards rejected at ATMs, restaurants and shops from London to Dubai and from Paris to New York, the Financial Times reported.

Nigeria has asked the World Bank and African Development Bank for $3.5bn in emergency loans to fill a growing gap in its budget in the latest sign of the economic damage being wrought on oil-rich nations by tumbling crude prices, the Financial Times reported. The request from the eight-month-old government of President Muhammadu Buhari is intended to help fund a $15bn state deficit, which has been deepened by a hefty increase in public spending as the west African country attempts to stimulate a slowing economy.

As if being kicked out of one of the world’s biggest emerging-market bond indexes isn’t enough, Nigeria now faces the risk of its credit rating falling further into junk, Bloomberg News reported today. Standard & Poor’s, which rates Africa’s largest oil producer four levels below investment grade at B+ with a stable outlook, releases a review of its assessment on Sept. 18. A week later, it’s the turn of Fitch Ratings, which has Nigeria at BB-, one level above S&P, with a negative outlook.