Oil prices: Africa’s big oil producers Nigeria and Angola seek World Bank support as rout bites
Two of Africa's biggest oil producers, Nigeria and Angola, have been forced to seek help from the World Bank, as falling oil prices weigh on their currencies and balance sheets.
Nigeria's finance minister, Kemi Adeosun, said yesterday that the country has held exploratory talks with the Washington-based institution to help fund a record budget this year, but it is yet to apply for any emergency loans.
"We have held exploratory talks with the World Bank. We have not applied for emergency loans," she told Reuters. It followed a report by the Financial Times that the West African nation had asked the World Bank and the African Development Bank for $3.5bn in emergency loans.
Read more: The oil price rally is fading
Angola also held talks with the World Bank about securing funding in a deal which would require it to implement unspecified reforms, according to its state news agency.
Brent crude, the global benchmark, has fallen around 70 per cent over the last eighteen months. This has heaped pressure on oil producing nations, such as Nigeria and Angola, whose budgets rely on their oil exports.