Nigeria

Nigeria is reducing its domestic borrowing after government debt reached 22 trillion naira ($61 billion) in 2017, with most of it made up of high-interest, locally-acquired credit, the country’s debt office said. The government is working on a strategy to reduce domestic debt to 60 percent of the total, from 73 percent, Patience Oniha, director general of the Abuja-based Debt Management Office, told reporters on Wednesday, Bloomberg News reported.

Nigeria’s finance minister plans to drag tax defaulters who don’t make use of an amnesty to court as she seeks funds to plug the nation’s $25 billion infrastructure gap, Bloomberg News reported. In the nine months of reprieve ending March, some penitent taxpayers have said “you got me” and cleared arrears without paying interest and or penalties, Kemi Adeosun said in an interview on Tuesday in her office in the capital, Abuja. But some have said “we wish you luck with this, catch us if you can,” she said. Nigeria wants to double its tax to gross domestic product ratio by 2020.

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari projects the nation’s budget shortfall will narrow next year as revenue from non-oil sources increases, Bloomberg News reported. Buhari asked lawmakers on Tuesday to approve the 2018 budget with a deficit of 2 trillion naira ($5.6 billion), compared to this year’s estimated fiscal gap of 2.356 trillion naira. Non-oil revenue is projected to triple to 4.2 trillion naira and will include funds raised from “restructuring of government’s equity in joint ventures,” he said in his budget speech in the capital, Abuja, without providing more details.

Nigeria’s Senate voted in favour on Tuesday of launching an investigation into the default on a $1.2 billion loan earlier this year by Etisalat Nigeria and into how the funds were used. Etisalat Nigeria, now called 9mobile, took out a syndicated loan from 13 Nigerian banks but failed to make repayments earlier this year, Reuters reported. “The Senate is aware of allegations that the loans had been diverted to other uses not related to the business, as there was no evidence of what the company did with the loans,” the upper house said in an order paper published on Twitter.

Nigerian lenders have picked Barclays to try to find new investors for debt-laden 9mobile, two banking sources said on Thursday. Barclays has started work on the mandate and is in the process of setting up a database for prospective investors to conduct due diligence, they said. Banking sources had previously said Citigroup and Standard Bank were in the running for the role, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. But the lenders decided against them due to their previous links with 9mobile, the sources said on Thursday.

Britain’s Serious Fraud Office will charge two former executives of collapsed oil company Afren on Wednesday with alleged fraud over payments they received via secret companies relating to business deals in Nigeria, Reuters reported. The SFO said in a statement former Afren Chief Executive Osman Shahenshah and former Chief Operating Officer Shahid Ullah would appear at Westminster Magistrates Court charged with two counts of fraud and two counts of money laundering.

Nigeria’s Access Bank said on Wednesday it had booked a 4 billion naira ($13 million) impairment on its loan to troubled telecoms firm 9mobile, formerly known as Etisalat Nigeria. Access Chief Executive Herbert Wigwe said the bank had a direct exposure of 11 billion naira to 9mobile, as well as an exposure of 35-39 billion naira to the telecoms firm’s suppliers, Reuters reported. Wigwe told an analysts’ call that Access hoped to recover the debt once 9mobile was sold to new investors.

Nigeria’s United Bank for Africa (UBA) said it had made a provision on loans made to 9mobile, the mobile operator formerly known as Etisalat Nigeria. The lender did not give details of the provision but said it had a 38 billion naira ($125 million) exposure to 9mobile. UBA said the exposure was secured, and part of a syndicated loan with 12 other banks extended to Etisalat Nigeria four years ago. Nigerian banks have agreed an extension to a $1.2 billion loan made to 9mobile, pending the mobile operator finding new investors, Reuters reported.

Nigeria's Zenith Bank has made a provision on 30 percent of its loan to 9mobile, the country's fourth largest telecoms group formerly known as Etisalat Nigeria, the bank's chief executive said on Monday. "We have taken about 30 percent ... as a provision which we believe is very prudent as the company is undergoing restructuring ... to prepare for a new investor," CEO Peter Amangbo told a conference call.

Nigeria's Union Bank has sufficient cover for its 3.9 billion naira ($10.69 million) loan to telecoms group 9mobile and will focus on expanding lending to agricultural and real estate businesses, its chief executive, Emeka Emuwa, said on Monday. Lenders have agreed to extend a $1.2 billion loan which mobile operator 9mobile, formerly known as Etisalat Nigeria, took out four years ago but struggled to repay due to a currency crisis and a recession in Nigeria, Reuters reported.