Alliance: Abu Dhabi $5bn Facility Raises Transparency, Risk Concerns
Says Tinubu’s reforms yielding gains but poverty, food insecurity remain high
Urges FG to publish terms, drawdowns, collateral, utilisation of facility
Queries N11.85tn borrowing, N30.64tn govt spending
Says naira lost 29% value in four years
Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja
The Alliance for Economic Research and Ethics has raised concerns over the transparency and risk implications of the federal government’s $5 billion Total Return Swap facility with First Abu Dhabi Bank, urging the government to disclose the material terms of the financing arrangement.
The group, in an analysis of the economic reforms scorecard recently presented by the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Taiwo Oyedele, said the facility involved public institutions, public collateral and public repayment obligations and should therefore be subjected to adequate public scrutiny.
The analysis, titled: “The $5 Billion Abu Dhabi Financing: A Scorecard of Transparency, Risk and the Road Ahead”, was released by the organisation following Oyedele’s presentation of the government’s “Nigeria’s Economic Reforms: By the Numbers” scorecard on Wednesday.
The group led by a former President of the Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA) and ex-Chairman of the Organised Private Sector of Nigeria (OPSN), Dele Oye, argued that some of the figures required greater context and clearer distinctions between revenue, borrowing, projections and independently verified outcomes.