APA – Lagos (Nigeria)
The report that Nigeria’s external debt climbed from $2.1 billion after the country exited from the Paris and London clubs of creditors in 2006 to about $41.8 billion it currently stands dominates the headlines of Nigerian newspapers on Monday.
The Guardian reports that Nigeria’s external debt climbed from $2.1 billion after the country exited from the Paris and London clubs of creditors in 2006 to about $41.8 billion it currently stands.
The external debt liability stood at $41.69 billion as at the end of last year. But recently, the Federal Government signed an agreement with the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRC) for additional borrowing of $800 million for palliatives to support about 10.2 million most vulnerable Nigerians ahead of fuel subsidy removal.
In 1999 when democracy returned to Nigeria, its total debts stood at $28.04 billion. The figure dropped to $2.1 billion on the famous debt relief secured by ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo. It went up to $7.3 billion under Dr. Goodluck Jonathan in 2015.
In the past eight years, Buhari has raised the figure by as much as over 400 per cent to $41.8 billion. In October 2005, Nigeria and the Paris Club announced a final agreement for debt relief worth $18 billion and an overall reduction of Nigeria’s debt stock by $30 billion. The deal was completed in April 2006 when Nigeria made the final payment and its books were cleared of Paris Club debt.
While campaigning for debt relief, the Debt Management Office (DMO) said it developed instruments that would ensure Nigeria does not slide into a debt trap in the future.
In a 17-page presentation, ‘Nigeria’s debt relief deal with the Paris Club’, the DMO wrote: “The Fiscal Responsibility Bill has been designed to lock in the gains of economic reform and prevent a relapse to the past. The law will commit all tiers of government to a set of rules for efficient economic management in terms of standardized planning, as well as control and monitoring of public borrowing and expenditure.”
The newspaper says that Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NiDCOM) said that 2,518 Nigerians had been evacuated from crisis-torn Sudan. Head of Media, Public Relations and Protocols Unit, Mr. Abdur-Rahman Balogun, disclosed this in Abuja, yesterday, while giving update on the evacuation exercise.
Balogun said: “The evacuation was done through 15 flights, with four from Aswan, Egypt and 11 from Port Sudan. A total of 2,371 evacuees have safely returned home as of Saturday, May 13. The new arrivals, just now, are 140 adults, comprising three infants and 30 children, making a total of 2,518.”
Meanwhile, the last batch of students that arrived Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, at the weekend, said they passed through a very traumatic experience.
The President, Kano State Students in Sudan, Hassan Sanusi, described as “terrible” what they went through. According to him, several frightened students fell unconscious as fighter jets rained bullets and bombs on buildings and sundry targets.
He said: “If you have ever witnessed fighter jets going around in the sky, dropping missiles, bombs and so on, and collapsing buildings, you will understand why some were falling unconscious.
“This really happened, and we witnessed many. It was not easy. I think we that arrived as the last batch really need a therapist to recover because it was not funny waking up amid shootings and bombings.”
The Punch reports that crude oil production in Nigeria crashed by over nine million barrels between March and April 2023, leading to a cumulative revenue loss of about N356bn, findings by The PUNCH showed on Sunday.
Industry operators blamed the plunge in oil production on the recent strike by some oil workers, which warranted the shutdown of production at selected wells for a period, as well as the theft of crude by thieves.
They, however, called for tougher investigations, as they alleged that some persons at oil export terminals could be culpable in the theft and fraud at these terminals.
They also pointed out that this could be the reason why the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), gave an order last week directing the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission to monitor crude oil production by taking over the regulatory oversight of crude oil export terminals nationwide.
An analysis of the latest oil production figures obtained from the NUPRC indicated that while Nigeria’s output in February was 1,306,304 per day, it fell to 1,268,202 per day in March, before crashing to 998,602 barrels per day in April.
This showed that between February and March, the country lost 38,102 barrels of crude oil daily, representing a total of 1,181,162 barrels for the 31 days of March.
Also, between March and April, Nigeria’s oil production crashed by 269,600 barrels per day, which translates to a total of 8,088,000 in the 30 days of April.
Country Economy, a global statistical firm, put the average cost of Brent, the international benchmark for oil, in March 2023, at $78.43/barrel.
Therefore by losing 1,181,162 barrels in March, Nigeria lost a total of $92.64m (N42.71bn at the official exchange rate of N461/$), during the period under review.
Similarly, data from Statistica, another international statistical firm, showed that the average cost of Brent in April was about $82/barrel, meaning that Nigeria lost $679.4m (N313.2bn) last month, due to the 8.1 million barrels drop in oil output.
The newspaper says that Nigerian chef, Hilda Effiong Bassey, popularly known as Hilda Baci, has surpassed the current Guinness World Record holder.
With her feat, she’s poised to break the Guinness World Record for the “longest cooking marathon by an individual” after hitting the 87 hours 50 minutes mark.
The restaurateur began the competition on Thursday after she turned on her cooker at 4pm and surpassed the current world record holder on Monday morning.
If certified by the Guinness World Record, she will be displacing the current world record holder, Lata Tondon, an Indian chef who achieved the feat in 2019 with 87 hours 45 minutes record uninterrupted cooking.
Baci’s cooking marathon is currently ongoing at Amore Gardens in Lekki, Lagos State.
In her ongoing record-breaking attempt, Nigerians, including several celebrities defied the rain to physically cheer up the visibly tired chef.
Baci hit the four-day mark on Monday morning.
The chef won the maiden edition of the Jollof Face-off Competition in 2021, pocketing a grand prize of $5000.
The Guinness Book of Records is a reference book that contains human and natural world records.
GIK/APA