States demand audit of $8.8bn crude deals

State governments have called for a forensic audit of Nigeria’s crude oil-backed borrowing arrangements, warning that opaque crude-for-loan and swap deals may be undermining inflows into the Federation Account.

The PUNCH earlier reported that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited pledged 272,500 barrels per day of crude oil through a series of crude-for-loan deals totalling $8.86bn, according to an analysis of a report by the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative and the NNPC’s financial statements.

According to The PUNCH’s findings, NNPC has already fully repaid $2.61bn in loans, representing 29.4 per cent of the total credit facility, while $6.25bn or 70.6 per cent, remains outstanding. Also, out of the $8.86bn credit facility, only about $6.97bn has been received from seven crude-for-loan deals, as of December 2023.

The demand was contained in a communiqué issued at the end of the 2026 retreat of the Federation Account Allocation Committee Post-Mortem Sub-Committee, obtained by The PUNCH on Thursday, which stated that, “All crude oil-backed borrowing arrangements should be subjected to legislative approval, full disclosure, and independent audit. Existing arrangements should be reviewed, with forensic audits conducted to restore confidence and protect future Federation revenues.”