Abuja, Nigeria, 26 June – The Nigerian senate has approved the concession of a US$10 million loan to Sao Tome and Principe, with preferential conditions, proposed by the country’s president Umaru Yar’Adua, the local press reported Thursday.

According to daily newspaper The Guardian, the proposal was put forward by the president of the senate’s Financial Commission, Alhaji Mohammed Ahmed Markarfi, who considered that the loan was of the “greatest economic interest to Nigeria.”

He added that he considered the arguments of the Nigerian Debt Management Office valid for providing the loan to Sao Tome and Principe.

The former Sao Tome prime minister, Patrice Trovoada asked Nigeria for a loan fo US$30 million to deal with “socio-economic difficulties.”

Later contacts between the two Government, and particularly an official visit by Sao Tome’s president to Nigeria, led to a decision to “reduce the loan amount to US$10 million initially, with additional tranches at the appropriate time,” said the letter presented by the president o the senate.

Repayments are expected to be made via the Shared Production Contract in the STP-Nigeria Joint Development Zone for oil, which includes signing bonus revenues, sales of packages of seismic data, rights, taxes and other income streams. (macauhub)