NIGERIA OPENS TALKS WITH U.K. TO RESCHEDULE DEBT
Representatives from Nigeria are meeting
today and tomorrow with officials of Britain's Export Credits
Guarantee Department (ECGD) in the first of what could be a
series of bilateral talks to reschedule Nigeria's official
debts, banking sources said.
    The talks follow an agreement reached between Nigeria and
the Paris Club of western creditor governments in December to
reschedule some 7.5 billion dlrs of medium and long-term debt
due between September, 1986 and end 1987 over 10 years with
five years grace. Nigeria's official debts to the U.K., Its
major trading partner, are estimated at 2.5 to three billion
dlrs.
    If the talks prove successful, the Nigerian team, headed by
Finance Minister Che Okongwu and Central Bank Governor
Abdulkadir Ahmed, will hold similar talks with French export
credit officials in Paris later this week, the sources said.
    An agreement could pave the way for ECGD to resume
insurance cover for exports to Nigeria, which was suspended in
1983.
    The rescheduling of Nigeria's official debts was one of the
demands required under a rescheduling of part of the country's
estimated 19 billion dlrs of commercial bank debt, for which
agreement also was reached in December between Nigeria and a
steering committee representing the commercial banks.
    The commercial bank rescheduling has yet to be finalised
because of the reluctance of Japanese banks to participate in
the agreement, despite a recent trip to Japan by senior
Nigerian officials and representatives of the steering
committee.
    The entire package also is being held up because of the
need to reach an agreement to satisfy arrears due on short-term
insured and uninsured debts. However, bankers are hopeful that
an accord will be struck by May 31.
    The Nigerians also are attempting to reconcile creditors'
claims with their own receipts on some two billion dlrs of
letters of credit contained in the commercial bank
rescheduling.
    Bankers said that it was hoped that the ECGD would resume
cover fairly soon as this could encourage other official
creditors to begin bi-lateral talks as well.
    Under the structural adjustment program supporting the debt
reschedulings Nigeria is due to receive 900 mln dlrs in fresh
export credits this year from official export credit agencies.
    British exports to Nigeria were 565 mln stg in 1986, down
from 960 mln in 1985, while Nigeria's exports to Britain, which
do not include oil, were 328 mln stg and 647 mln, respectively.
 REUTER
