The African Development Bank (AfDB) said on Thursday that it approved loans totaling $200 million to Nigeria’s United Bank of Africa (UBA) and Zenith Bank to help improve access to loans in Nigeria. AfDB endorsed $150 million loan for UBA and $50 million for Zenith Bank.

“The facility loan ($150 million) will be used to shore shrinking foreign currency line resulting from the financial crises,” UBA said. “The loan under the Trade Finance Initiative will fund UBA’s trade finance operations, including providing short-term credit for import and export-finance,” UBA added.

Chairman King recently reported that, given the growing demand for loans from African countries trying to cushion the impact of the global financial crisis, the African Development Bank (AfDB) was looking to triple its capital base to prevent it from breaching lending limits.

The AfDB also lent Gabon $71 million to finance an education and vocational training scheme.

African Development Bank
United Bank for Africa
Zenith Bank

Source(s):
CNBC