Saturday September 30, 2023
The President of the Coalition for Democracy in Nigeria ( CODIN), Comrade Mashood Erubami has urged the Federal Government not to seek for another loan to serve as a buffer for the exchange rate.
He described the AFREXIM loan to NNPC as another attempt to swindle Nigeria of the loaner amount through another oil swap.
He said it is a newly designed strategy to continue the pilfering of National resources”. Comrade Mashood Erubami, a development finance Analyst and principal anti corruption and Human rights Activist maintained thatIf the naira regain temporary consciousness and the $3bn loan is advanced to NNPC , it will be distributed to the same Business Cabal as capital flight back to the source where the money comes from.The Afrexim/NNPC loan being designed as a booster for the naira to find an economic solution should better spend the $3b on the productive and self financing projects for the reinflation of the economy. Failure which, after the misuse of the fund, the exchange rate will be back to its uncontrollable figure and sink further.T
he fact of the matter is thatNigeria lacks adequate foreign reserves to meet the importation needs of the country because it is not exporting much to pay for its foreign needs to still leave surpluses. Whereas, The little foreign reserves being generated from the Country’s crude exportation is being used to fund the payments of foreign debts and imported refined petroleum which is more than 85% of our foreign revenue generation.
The Country needs stringent importation and foreign exchange control regulations to oversees the spendings of the country’s foreign earnings and oversight the products and goods importations to ensure that the country spend it’s scarce foreign earnings on necessities.
Surprisingly, the context in which the Dangote conglomerate has now come out to benefit from the purchase of the crude after they initially rejected the purchase of the Nigerian crude oil makes it a dangerous deal. The same Agents in NNPC who are alleged to be supporting the Dangote refineries will run through and could make them the preferred beneficiaries.
The financial expert, further explained that, It is not by accident that Afrexim Bank is Seeking Buyers For NNPC Crude to Finance it’s $3bn Loan, it is by design to give the oil cabals in the oil sectors including the Dangote the chances to leverage on their National visibility. Since some of them had started to speak of New Plans, it is in the context of the possibility of cornering the huge loan again as it has been alleged in the past.It is not in doubt why the Afrexim Bank must be interested in seeking to fund the $3 billion loan request by NNPC, it is to partner with the same conduit pipes through which such funds had been wasted in the past leaving Nigeria prostate in the end. Finding buyers for the Country’s crude is not only irregular but economically unethical and most incredible in loan advancement appraisal. By all business best practices, it is the most deceptive approach to divert the country’s crude oil resources for internal and external sharing among the members of known cabals in the oil sector.
Again, as the Afrexim are desirous of finding buyers to serve as collateral for the loan, the NNPC too may be eager to produce buyers in the like of Dangote Conglomerate to seize the opportunity as preferred buyers since they have a yet to be functional refinery that crude oil is their main headache presently. It is laughable and economically inexplicable that the loaning bank is also talking to the would be debtors of the bank and prospective buyers who are asking for terms and conditions of the deal. ! NNPC is presently fixed on what the loan will be used for, ” to strengthen the naira in the Forex market” but how can the same government that deregulated the exchange rate through currency floating will also be looking for how to boost the naira against the same foreign currency.
Is that economically viable and sustainable ? The swap arrangement is definitely suspicious, if not, why should it be the National Oil Company that will be looking for money to boost the Naira ? If the huge loan is eventually secured, how will the NNPC put it through the Central Bank system when the loan is not a public loan ? How will the NNPC make the loan to serve as a buffer for the naira ? The sense in the swap is that the buyers should come in to pay in foreign currency which the Afrexim is making available through the loan but on what terms and conditions will the Country’s crude oil be parted without including the elements of corruption and exploitations ?
Comrade Mashood Erubami reiterated that It will be more dangerous at a time that The new Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Olayemi Cardoso, recently said one of his priorities is clearing the backlog of foreign exchange obligations to Nigerian banks, which analysts say could be as high as $7 billion. However, the more the official foreign exchange market cannot meet the needs of importers and individuals, the more their unmet requirements will be directed to black market sources causing a legitimate increase in the dollar rate. This is why the approach to loan issues must be underscore by national development interest and patriotism.
