One hundred and fifty‑two days after President Bola Tinubu signed a £746 million ports financing deal with the United Kingdom at Windsor Castle, neither government has disclosed the terms of the agreement. I initially held back from commenting, prioritising Nigeria’s spiraling insecurity. But the persistent silence surrounding this deal and the pattern of opaque governance it reflects makes further waiting irresponsible.
Nigeria’s
public debt has exploded from ₦87 trillion in May 2023 to over ₦152 trillion
today. Debt service now gulps more than 60 percent of government revenues,
leaving crumbs for health,
education,
and the security Nigerians are dying for lack of. The administration’s
annual borrowing
rate has
soared to nearly ₦50 trillion, that is, ten times that of its predecessors,
fueled by a $21.45 billion external borrowing plan approved without a single
substantive public hearing by the complicit, supine and captive nassnigeria
Against
this backdrop, the Tinubu government added a £746 million ports deal whose
terms remain hidden. This is not a grant, nor aid. It is a sovereign debt
obligation. It is a commercial loan arranged by Citibank London, guaranteed by
UK Export Finance, and structured to benefit British exporters.
At least
£236 million is contractually reserved for British suppliers. British Steel
alone secured a £70 million contract it described as one of the largest in its
history. Nigeria borrowed the money that British companies will harvest the
contracts and Nigerians will repay the debt. Yet neither interest rates nor
repayment timelines have been officially published. ……/1
0 Comments
DISCLAIMER
The views and opinions expressed on this platform as comments were freely made by each person under his or her own volition or responsibility and were neither suggested nor dictated by the owners of News PLATFORM or any of their contracted staff. So we take no liability whatsoever for such comments.
Please take note!