The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Limited has secured a $3 billion emergency crude repayment loan to support the Naira and stabilise the foreign exchange market.
This is coming after the Naira crashed to an all-time low last week, reaching N950 at the parallel market.
The NNPC has now announced that it signed a commitment letter and term sheet with Afrexim Bank for an emergency $3bn crude oil repayment loan. The deal was sealed at the bank’s headquarters in Cairo, Egypt.
The statement read “The NNPC Ltd. and AfriEXIM bank have jointly signed a commitment letter and Term sheet for an emergency $3 billion crude oil repayment loan.
“The signing, which took place today at the bank’s headquarters in Cairo, Egypt, will provide some immediate disbursement that will enable the NNPC Ltd. to support the Federal Government in its ongoing fiscal and monetary policy reforms aimed at stabilizing the exchange rate market.”
It is expected that this would save Nigeria from approaching the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for loans, and bring respite to the local currency, which has depreciated significantly against the dollar over the past week.