The National Economic Council, NEC, said the $3 billion emergency loan-for-crude oil that the Federal Government obtained in August would be used to stabilize the naira.

The Nasarawa State Governor, Abdullahi Sule, who spoke after the 136th NEC meeting, which held at the Aso Rock presidential Villa said:  “So, we are very confident and we still believe very strongly that with the plan that will come out and with all these items that have been listed on the improvement of revenue, the $3bn shall be useful to us down the line.”

Recall that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited had on August 16 disclosed that it secured an emergency $3bn crude repayment loan from Afrexim Bank to relieve pressure on the naira.

NNPCL said the loan would enable it to settle taxes and royalties in advance.

However, the naira has continued to fluctuate in the Investors & Exporters’ window and worsened at the parallel market, hitting N1000/$ earlier this month.

Asked when the intervention would kick in and if there would be a need for a supplementary budget, Sule said “The $3bn that was taken in order to stabilise the naira. As you have seen we have a new team at the CBN and the new team that is just coming in is asking for a little bit of time in order to work out the modalities.

“It is one thing to take the loan it is another to plan the process of the stabilisation because it’s going to take a while.

“The CBN governor was just confirmed a few days back and he started rolling out his plans of what to do.”

On the supplementary budget, the governor said, “Supplementary budget is a request that will come as a result of whatever is happening right now. I’m not sure there is a need for a supplementary budget immediately. So far, there have been no supplementary budget requests that were presented to NEC.”