BABAJIDE OKEOWO
Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s Nigerian unit has agreed a $200 million deal with United Bank for Africa Plc to help its local vendors and suppliers access project finance.
This latest deal brings Shell’s Nigerian contractor support fund to $2.4 billion. The fund can be accessed by contractors who have a valid purchase order and meet the bank’s risk assessment criteria, Shell said.
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“Lack of access to capital hinders many Nigerian companies from competing for and executing contracts effectively,” Bashir Bello, Shell’s general manager for government and business relations, said in an emailed statement on Sunday.
Shell is Nigeria’s largest producer, pumping an average of 631,000 barrels a day in 2017, about a third of nation’s output. In 2016, Shell signed a $2.2 billion accord with seven Nigerian lenders that have since disbursed around $1.5 billion of loans to more than 300 small- and medium-sized Nigerian Shell suppliers and vendors in the oil and gas industry, the company said.
