The UUBO Banking and Finance team is pleased to have acted as Nigerian Counsel to the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, in connection with a Working Capital Solutions unsecured loan of up to US$250 million to tier 1 Nigerian bank, Zenith Bank PLC.
The loan is to complement IFC’s previous US$100 million FG COVID-19 Emergency Response loan granted to the bank in 2020 (which UUBO also advised on as Nigerian counsel). The loan will (a) enable the tier 1 bank to provide working capital and trade finance facilities to enterprises in Nigeria (including micro, small or medium sized enterprises) impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic; (b) support the bank’s ability to sustain its customers’ operations and expedite post-COVID-19 crisis recovery. In relation to ESG, the loan will enable the bank to support customers that are not engaged in coal related activities, upstream oil and gas activities, and activities that are sensitive, diverse or unprecedented. The loan is also expected to significantly enable the bank to contribute to the economic growth of the Nigerian private sector by providing businesses in the health, pharmaceutical, food, and trading sectors, with foreign currency working capital to support their operations in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The UUBO team was led by our Banking and Finance Partner Joseph Eimunjeze with support from Victor Samuel , Modupe Balogun and Oluwatobi Akintayo.
