As part of bailout for states struggling financially to pay salaries and meet other obligations, the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, has approved a restructuring of existing bank loans from a short term repayment period to a minimum of 20 years.
Loans for salary arrears will now also be extended to a minimum of 15 and not more than 20 years.
The CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, announced the apex bank’s restructuring plan at the National Economic Council (NEC) meeting, on Thursday, July 23.
According to him, the states could go for two options, the bond option, which will attract market rate, and the debt restructuring option, which will attract single digit rate.
The Council resolved that a four-man team made up of the Governors of Bauchi, Rivers, Ondo and Osun states would follow up with the apex bank to ensure that the issues of excess crude collateral for the states are sorted out by next week Tuesday, July 28.
