Government asks $1bn budget support loan from AfDB

The Federal Government of Nigeria has finally announced that it has asked the African Development Bank (AfDB) for a $1bn (N199bn) loan to help fund an increased budget deficit, the bank said on Tuesday.

According to Reuters, the AfDB stated that it is currently in the process of considering a loan request made by the West African nation, and that it shall send in a team to the country soon to do an appraisal.

According to report, the Federal Government intends to borrow as much as $5bn to help fund a deficit due to the decline in global oil prices, which has also sent the naira into a tailspin.

READ: Country's economic growth slows to 7.9% in second quarter

The Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, confirmed that the government had preparatory talks with the World Bank and looked at options to borrow from the AfDB and China Exim Bank.

The spokesperson for the Minister of Finance, Festus Akanbi, told Punch that the telephone on Tuesday that there was nothing unusual about the government’s resort to borrowing as it had stated in the budget proposals that it would look to borrow from internal and external sources to finance the budget deficit.