Nigeria’s government has asked for concessionary loans worth $3.5 billion from the World Bank and African Development Bank to help it finance a planned record budget this year, Finance Minister Kemi Adeosun said.
A formal request has been made to the World Bank for $2.5 billion and the AFDB for $1 billion, Adeosun said by telephone on Sunday. The loans still need to be approved by those institutions’ boards, and the government plans to tie them to specific capital projects, she said. A request hasn’t been made for assistance from the International Monetary Fund.
Lawmakers in Nigeria’s parliament will begin deliberations this week on the record 6.1 trillion naira ($30.7 billion) 2016 spending plan, she said. The loan requests are “in anticipation of getting the budget approved” and are “not part of an IMF package,” Adeosun said.
With government finances hit by low crude prices, Africa’s top oil producer wants to spend its way out of slowing economic growth. To plug a record budget gap of 3 trillion naira, Adeosun said Jan. 21 that authorities will borrow about $5 billion in external debt from multilateral agencies and the Eurobond market.
Adeosun said non-deal roadshow meetings with investors to sound out a potential sale of $1 billion of Eurobonds will start in February.
