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Nigeria approves $200 million World Bank loan for projects in Lagos

14 January 2016 Comments (0) Africa, Business, Latest Updates from Reuters

ABUJA (Reuters) – Nigeria’s government has approved a $200 million loan from a World Bank agency to develop infrastructure in Lagos state, its commercial hub, the minister for works, power and housing said on Wednesday.

The loan was the second tranche of a total of $600 million lent by the International Development Association to the Nigeria government for Lagos state since 2010, Babatunde Fashola said.

Lagos, a mega-city of 21 million people in the state of the same name, is the commercial engine of Africa’s biggest economy. Its gross domestic product accounts for about a third of Nigeria’s overall GDP.

Fashola, who did not give details of any projects for which the loan would be used, said the money had been intended for distribution in three tranches each of $200 million to end in 2013 but had been delayed.

“It suffered delays as a result of partisan political differences in the last dispensation. After the first tranche was disbursed there was a freeze on the second tranche,” he told reporters.

Fashola said the loan was to be repaid over 25 years at an interest rate of 2.5 percent.

 

(Reporting by Felix Onuah; Writing by Alexis Akwagyiram; Editing by Chijioke Ohuocha, Larry King)

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Nigeria’s Stanbic IBTC cuts 2015 loan growth forecast to 3%

9 November 2015 Comments (0) Africa, Business, Latest Updates from Reuters

LAGOS (Reuters) – Nigeria’s Stanbic IBTC has cut its 2015 forecast for loan growth to 3 percent from 10 percent, citing the impact of slowing economic activities on businesses, the local unit of South Africa’s Standard Bank said on Monday.

Africa’s biggest economy posted its lowest output growth for five years in August with its economy expanding 2.35 percent in the second quarter against 6.54 percent a year ago. Stanbic said the slowdown continued in the third quarter.

The mid-tier lender said loans grew marginally by 1 percent to 418.3 billion naira ($2.1 billion) in the first nine months and lowered its return on equity (ROE) target to 15 percent from 18 percent, it said in a presentation.

 

(Reporting by Chijioke Ohuocha, editing by David Evans, Reuters)

 

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Ghana’s Cocobod signs $1.8 bil loan for 2015/16 crop purchases

18 September 2015 Comments (0) Africa, Business, Latest Updates from Reuters

ACCRA (Reuters) – Ghana’s cocoa regulator signed a $1.8 billion loan with international banks on Thursday to finance purchases for the 2015/16 season, its spokesman said.

Ghana is the world’s second-biggest producer of cocoa and this year’s syndicated loan, signed in Paris by some 23 lenders, will be used to purchase around 850,000 tonnes, Cocobod spokesman Noah Amenyah said.

Lead arrangers for the facility, the largest soft commodity deal in sub-Saharan Africa, were Barclays Bank, Commerzbank, Deutsche Bank, French investment bank Natixis and Japan’s Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation.

Amenyah said the loan was oversubscribed by 44 percent to $2.6 billion but Cocobod took only $1.8 billion as originally planned at 1.19 percent over eleven months. Cocobod raised $1.7 billion from a similar syndication a year ago.

“Once again, the syndication was oversubscribed and it shows the increasing confidence of the lenders in Cocobod’s management and its operations,” he said.

Inflows from the loan, to be drawn in early October, are expected to help boost the central bank’s reserves in support of the local cedi currency, which is currently down around 26 percent, Amenyah said.

Deputy chief executive James Kutsoati said Cocobod hopes to open the new season on Oct 2 after closing the current season at the end of September.

Ghana is experiencing a poor cocoa harvest this year with output down 23 percent from last year due to harsh weather and poor farming practices.

Purchases hit the 700,000 tonne-mark in late August and it appears the country will miss its revised 750,000 tonne-target as the crop year draws to a close this month.

(By Kwasi Kpodo, Reuters)

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