NIGERIA NEED INVESTMENT $5.5 BLN

REUTERS - Nigeria will move ahead with plans to borrow $5.5 billion from foreign investors after the Senate on Tuesday approved President Muhammadu Buhari request for the move.

The money is designed to plug a large gap in Nigeria's finances that stems in part from the global fall in oil prices.

Nigeria's economy grew in the second quarter, climbing out of its first recession in 25 years, but the pace of growth was slow suggesting that the recovery remains fragile.

The 7.44 trillion naira ($24.33 billion) 2017 budget projects a shortfall of $7.5 billion, prompting Buhari's call for foreign loans.

The borrowing would include $2.5 billion in Eurobonds to plug part of the 2017 budget deficit and $3 billion to refinance maturing domestic debt to lower the country's funding costs.

The government intends to spend money on infrastructure projects to diversify the OPEC member's oil-dependent economy. Crude oil sales make up about two-thirds of government revenue.

"We're working to ensure Nigerians get dividends of democracy and return Nigeria to a construction giant," said Gbenga Ashafa, a senator representing a constituency in commercial capital Lagos, according to the Senate's official Twitter feed.

Buhari last week presented a 2018 budget of 8.612 trillion naira ($28.16 billion), the country's biggest ever, to lawmakers. Analysts say implementation of Buhari's budgets since taking office in 2015 has been lacking, particularly on capital expenditure. ($1 = 305.8000 naira)

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Earlier:

2017, September, 15, 08:50:00 NIGERIA NEEDS TIME Emmanuel Kachikwu, Nigeria’s minister of state for petroleum resources, told the Financial Times that the west African nation’s energy sector was still suffering from years of violent disruptions and needed more “recovery time” before joining a supply deal agreed last year between some of the world’s biggest oil producers.

2017, September, 4, 12:25:00 NIGERIA'S OIL PRODUCTION: 2.2 MBD The figure of around 2.2 million to 2.3 million b/d includes about 300,000 to 400,000 b/d of condensates, which implies that its current crude oil production is at the coveted 1.8 million b/d mark.

2017, July, 24, 13:55:00 OIL OUTPUT CONSENSUS With prices still languishing below the $55-$60/b that some ministers have said they are targeting, some market watchers say OPEC and its non-OPEC partners have no choice but to deepen cuts to make up for output gains from exempt Nigeria and Libya, as well as sliding compliance from other members.

2017, April, 12, 17:30:00 WBG - AFRICA'S ECOMOMIC DIFFICULTIES Nigeria, South Africa, and Angola, the continent’s largest economies, are seeing a rebound from the sharp slowdown in 2016, but the recovery has been slow due to insufficient adjustment to low commodity prices and policy uncertainty. Furthermore, several oil exporters in the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC) are facing economic difficulties.

2017, March, 31, 18:35:00 IMF HAS NIGERIA With oil receipts dominating fiscal revenue and exports, the Nigerian economy has been hit hard by low oil prices and falling oil production. The country entered into a recession in 2016, with growth contracting by 1.5 percent. Annual inflation levels doubled to 18.6 percent, reflecting hikes in electricity and fuel tariffs, a weaker naira and accommodating monetary conditions (broad money expanding at 19 percent y-o-y). Even with a significant under-execution in capital spending, the consolidated fiscal deficit increased from 3.5 percent of GDP in 2015 to 4.7 percent of GDP in 2016, because of significant revenue shortfalls.

2016, September, 28, 18:40:00 NIGERIAN OIL FIRE Shell says a fire has forced it to close a key oil pipeline feeding Nigeria's strategic Bonny Export Terminal, which militants attacked last week.

2016, June, 27, 18:15:00 NIGERIA WANT $50 BLN “We’re looking to raise about $40 to $50 billion,” Kachikwu said in the Bloomberg interview. “Going to places like China, which have a huge capacity to put money in the oil sector, is very helpful.”