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Atiku to Tinubu: Explain NNPCL’s $3.3bn emergency loan deal

The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2023 election, Atiku Abubakar, has asked President Bola Tinubu to account for the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited’s (NNPCL) $3.3 billion emergency crude repayment loan.

The NNPCL had, on August 16, 2023, secured a $3.3 billion emergency crude repayment loan from the African Export-Import Bank to stabilise the foreign exchange market.

The NNPCL had said the loan was to help give support to the naira and stabilise the foreign exchange market.

The federal government, a few weeks ago, received $2.25 billion out of the $3.3 billion foreign exchange facility from the African Export-Import Bank.

However, Atiku, while speaking on the deal via a statement issued on Thursday, January 25, 2024, said the federal government has been keeping mum about the transaction, noting that the only information available to the public on the deal is coming only through unofficial sources from the NNPCL.

The former Vice President further described the loan as a “shady deal”, adding that a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) called Project Gazelle Funding Limited is driving the deal, and it was incorporated in the Bahamas.

Atiku stated: “The SPV is the borrower while the NNPC is the sponsor, with an agreement to pay with crude oil to the SPV in order to liquidate the loan at an interest rate that is a little over 12 per cent.

“What is even more confounding about this deal is why the Federal Government would register a company in the Bahamas, knowing full well the recent scandal of the Paradise Papers that involved that country.

“Curiously also, Nigeria’s current Barrels Produced Daily (BPD) is 1.38 million, and according to the Project Gazelle deal, Nigeria is to supply 90,000 Barrels of its daily production, starting from 2024 till it is up to 164.25 million barrels for the repayment of the loan.

“Now, this is where the details get disturbing because Nigeria’s benchmark for the sale of crude per barrel in 2024 is $77.96. A simple multiplication of that figure by 164.25 will give us a whooping $12 billion.

“It is on this note that we are calling on the Federal Government to speak up on this shady deal.

“It is inconceivable that the Federal Government will lead the country to take a loan of $3.3 billion with an interest rate that is not more than 12 per cent, but with estimated repayment amounting to $12 billion.

“That is a humongous differential of about $7 billion between what is in the details of the deal on paper and what indeed is the reality.”

Atiku, who stressed that there are questions to be answered on the integrity of the deal, urged the federal government to talk directly about the details behind the deal.

He said: “We therefore demand, on behalf of the ordinary people of Nigeria, that the Federal Government provides answers to the following questions.

“Has the Federal Government accessed the loan? Is the loan in the government’s borrowing plan as approved by the National Assembly? Who are the parties to the loan, and what specific roles are they expected to play?

“What are the conditions to the loan, including tenor, repayment terms, the collateral, and the interest rate? And, lastly, why register an SPV in the Bahamas knowing the recent scandal of the country’s notoriety for warehousing unclean assets?”

The Star