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Vol 67 No 12

Published 12th June 2026


Nigeria

IMF critiques Abuja’s opaque lending

After the Tinubu government sold forward 14% of national oil production last year, it is borrowing US$5 billion from the UAE

The IMF’s warning on 9 June to President Bola Tinubu’s government of the financial risks of a US$5 billion loan package via a series of derivative contracts with the First Abu Dhabi Bank in the United Arab Emirates follows mounting unease about the Gulf State’s high interest loans to Ethiopia and Kenya, and the political concessions it exacts from those governments. Official sources say the government was determined to go ahead with its plan to borrow US$20 billion in the 2026-27 financial year after the National Assembly had approved it last year. They add that the UAE loan terms were judged ‘competitive’ in Abuja.

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