The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has approved a restructuring of existing bank loans from a short term repayment period to a minimum of 20 years, as part of bailout for states struggling financially to pay salaries and meet other obligations.
Loans for salary arrears will now also be extended to a minimum of 15 and not more than 20 years.
The CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, announced the apex bank’s restructuring plan at the National Economic Council (NEC) meeting yesterday.
He added that states could go for two options, the bond option, which will attract market rate, and the debt restructuring option, which will attract single digit rate.
The Council resolved that a four-man team made up of the Governors of Bauchi, Rivers, Ondo and Osun states would follow up with the CBN to ensure that the issues of excess crude collateral for the states are sorted out by next week Tuesday. The Council also considered the report on excess crude proceeds
It also received a presentation from the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Finance, on the excess crude proceeds. He took the Council through the summary of inflow and outflow of excess crude savings account from January 2011 to July 21, 2015.
According to the Permanent Secretary, the ECA currently stands at $2.078 billion. The Council directed that the Committee on ECA should work with the Accountant General’s office to resolve the gaps observed in the presentation.