NNPC secures $3bn loan to stabilise naira

The NNPC Limited on Wednesday disclosed that it has signed a Commitment Letter and Term Sheet with AfreximBank for an emergency $3 billion crude oil repayment loan.

The company said the agreement was jointly signed by both parties at the bank’s headquarters in Cairo, Egypt.

NNPC Limited, in a statement explained that the loan “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”.

Recall that last week, the Federal Government reported a 13.6 percent drop in daily crude oil production in the month of July, leaving the country seriously short of dollar revenues from crude oil export.

The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, NUPRC, disclosed that production averaged 1.08 million barrels per day compared to 1.25mbpd recorded in June, latest production data from the, has indicated.

The July production figure was a major setback for the government which has a production target of 1.69 million barrels per day in the 2023 budget.

The volume of production was also significantly lower than the 1.7 million barrels per day production quota allocated to the country by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC.