Federal Executive Council (FEC) on Wednesday approved the issuance of a Sovereign Guarantee of €500 million (N200bn) from the Credit Suisse AG London Branch.
The Council approved a syndicate of international lenders as collateral for the facility to the Bank of Industry.
The loan is basically to finance major industrialisation projects and micro-small and medium enterprises value chains in Nigeria for up to five years’ tenure at affordable rates, Clement Agba, minister of state for finance, budget and national planning, said while briefing State House correspondents after the weekly FEC meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari in Abuja.
The loan with single-digit rates is to be guaranteed by the Federal Government of Nigeria and will be executed through the Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning.
“The main objective of the loan is to support industry, revitalise agro-industrial processing zones and facilitate the creation of new jobs,” Agba said.
“We do believe that about 1.2 million jobs will be created through this facility, increase the income of farming communities and promote the inclusion of SMEs and smallholder producers in the industrial value chain and the deployment of transportation infrastructure that connect farming communities to processors and market,” he said.
Agba said the loan will be swapped to naira by the CBN to mitigate the foreign exchange risk and the fund would, therefore, be available to Nigerian enterprises at a more affordable rate and in local currency.
The Ministry of Power also presented a memo seeking the ratification authorising the president to release $2 million.
The fund is expected to be part of Nigeria’s contributions to the West African Power Pool.
FEC also approved a justice sector policy to reform the sector by simplifying access to justice.
This was disclosed by Abubakar Malami, Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice.
Malami explained that the policy would ensure “speedy determination of justice”, “quality of justice” and “access to justice”.
FEC also approved a memo seeking to repeal the Geneva Convention and re-enact it to “accord greater access to justice by prisoners of war”.
Malami said Nigeria was behind the rest the world in terms of according prisoners of war certain rights and privileges.
“The intention and design was to have a justice sector reform package that will turn things for the better as far as administration of justice is concerned. It will turn things around relating to the justice, turn things around in relation to speedy administration of justice, and turn things around for the purpose of ensuring at the end of the day, that we have a consensus approach to the administration of justice,” he said.
He described the policy as one that is “all-encompassing as it relates to institutional accommodation”.
TONY AILEMEN, Abuja
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