Nigeria seeks $3.5 billion to fund record budget

While discussions are ongoing, a formal request has not yet been made to the World Bank for $2.5 billion and the African Development Bank for $1 billion. The government plans to tie them to specific capital projects, Nigerian Minister of Finance Kemi Adeosun said, Bloomberg reports.

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari's administration is seeking to spend its way out of an economic crisis triggered by a collapse in oil prices. Nigeria is Africa's biggest oil producer and relies on crude for almost all its exports and two-thirds of government revenue.

Buhari has proposed boosting this year's budget to a record 6.1 trillion naira ($30.7 billion). Adeosun said that authorities are to borrow about $5 billion in external debt from multilateral agencies and the Eurobond market to plug a record budget gap of 3 trillion naira. ■