Nigeria's Massive Bad Loan Debt Prompts Government Bailout

Apparently, the measures taken by the United States Federal Reserve last fall are not as peculiar as we thought. Reuters reports that Nigeria is so stuffed with bad loan debt that the country’s Central Bank had to “inject” billions of dollars into five of the nation’s largest banks.

What caused this predicament? Over 600 bad debtors, including individuals, firms, and guess who? “State bodies”, that is, other government agencies.  The published list includes corporations such as Conoil Nigeria, a oil sales behemoth that makes $129.1 billion annnually, French auto manufacturer Peugeot, which also does pretty well for itself yearly, and ….drumroll….the state governments of Bauchi and Anambra!!! So, in effect, the government is bailing out itself. (Feel free to insert sarcastic remark here.)

It’s obvious that recovery from the global recession is going to take some time, but it seems like it could be a little bit quicker if entities that could do without extra money would stop borrowing it.

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Posted by on October 26, 2009. Filed under WorldNewsVine. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.