Nigeria needs about $15 billion in loans and through sales of assets to restart its economy which has plunged into recession, and to boost foreign exchange reserves, Africa’s richest Aliko Dangote said. “Through sales of assets, through loans from Bank of China or wherever, we need something like $15 billion, We’re having a problem as the reserves are low. The banks, entrepreneurs, everybody is speculating on the currency,” he told Bloomberg Television, at the US-Africa business forum last Wednesday, Sept 21, in New York.

Africa’s second largest economy is presently crippled by the global oil price slump and low foreign investments. The continent’s most populated nation indeed gets 70% of its revenues and about 90% of its foreign exchange earnings from oil exports.

With an estimated budget deficit of $11 billion, Nigeria has entered recession for the first time in 20 years, after its GDP decreased by 2.06% in the second quarter of 2016, and by 0.36% in the first.

Moreover, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), in a report published in July 2016 cut its forecast for Nigeria’s GDP growth to 1.8%, its worst in over 25 years. There is also the local currency, the naira, that weakened by almost 40% to the dollar during the year.

To overcome the current economic crisis, the Nigerian government intends to borrow $4.5 billion of concessional loans and Eurobonds this year, to finance public investments and stimulate its economy. The nation has in fact recently announced it would issue a billion dollar Eurobond next December. It is also negotiating with the World Bank and the African Development Bank (AfDB) for a $1 billion loan. Nigerian authorities have at the beginning of September, given their approval for loans from China and Japan.

Due to all these challenges, Nigeria has lost its place as Africa’s leading economy to the continent most-industrialized nation, South Africa.

Alain Okpeitcha