Niger defaults on its debt, while Nigeria blocks food shipments to the country
Niger defaulted on 13.4 billion CFA francs ($22 million) in debt last week, the West African Debt Management Agency said on Monday, bringing the total defaults to around 519 million dollars following the July coup and its suspension from regional financial markets.
The West African Monetary Union's debt management agency UMOA-Titres said in a statement that Niger had failed to repay the principal that was due on February 16. He had previously missed payments for August, November, January and February.
UMOA-Titres noted that this occurred in the context of sanctions imposed on Niger by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the West African Economic and Monetary Union, also known by its French acronym UEMOA. In short, ECOWAS is pushing its states into default.
“This situation is being closely monitored by UMOA-Titres in collaboration with the relevant institutions,” the agency said in a statement on Monday.
The sanctions were imposed after the July 30 coup by members of Nigeria's presidential guard, which overthrew President Mohamed Bazoum.
Other countries, including the United States, which had provided health, security and infrastructure aid, also suspended their support.
Until the coup, aid accounted for nearly half of Niger's annual budget. Niger's neighbors have also closed their borders to the country and more than 70% of electricity, supplied by Nigeria, has been interrupted. Financial transactions with West African countries have been suspended. Niger's assets in foreign banks have been frozen and hundreds of millions of dollars in aid have been withheld.
In July, the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO) canceled Niger's planned 30 billion CFA francs ($51 million) bond issue. This is the problem of having a single central bank for the whole Western CFA area, which one day, by 2027, should be replaced by the future common currency ECO , which should cover the whole ECOWAS area.
Now Niger, with Mali and Burkina Faso, has declared its exit from ECOWAS; but this has not improved the situation, in fact it has even worsened it: the news arrives that a convoy of 50 trucks loaded with grain and food was blocked before crossing the border between Nigeria and Niger, worsening the already tense situation of food supplies To the country. The food products were then immediately distributed by the Nigerian authorities to the local populations.
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The article Niger defaults on debt, while Nigeria blocks food shipments to the country comes from Economic Scenarios .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/il-niger-fa-default-sul-debito-mentre-la-nigeria-blocca-i-carichi-di-prodotti-alimentari-per-il-paese/ on Tue, 20 Feb 2024 17:00:40 +0000.