$3bn loan: Atiku's aide says NNPC usurped CBN's role, berates Tinubu

The Special Assistant on Public Communication to ex-Vice President Atiku Abubakar, Phrank Shaibu, has chided the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, NNPCL, for securing a $3 billion loan.

The Atiku’s aide, who described the loan as fraudulent, said the loan was a gimmick to force the naira to appreciate at the parallel market.

He said such monetary policy was CBN’s responsibility and not NNPC’s.

He said Tinubu’s administration detained the suspended CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, for taking $7.5 billion Forex loans from JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs to defend the naira.

“Now, Tinubu’s administration claims to have done the same thing by forcing the NNPCL to take a loan of $3bn to defend the naira,” he said.

However, the new loan has pushed up Nigeria’s debt stock to N82 trillion amid CBN’s naira devaluation.

Nigeria’s debt stock of N82 trillion rose from N77 trillion before the CBN exchange rate unification, announced on Wednesday, June 14, 2023.

According to a press release by the CBN, all exchange rate windows are collapsed into the Importers and Exporters (I&E) window, showing a merger of the multiple exchange rates.

The unification has seen the naira fall to N664 per dollar and has attracted severe consequences for the nation’s economy, including a spike in public debt.