Ecobank Nigeria and
seven other leading deposit money banks in the country have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Total Exploration and Production Nigeria Limited and Total Upstream Nigerian Limited on a $7.5 billion Nigeria contractors’ initiative.
The ceremony which took place in Port Harcourt recently include Zenith Bank, Diamond Bank, Guaranty Trust Bank, United Bank for Africa, Standard Chartered Bank, Access Bank and Fidelity Bank.
The initiative which is part of efforts by Total to strengthen government’s local content policy would help the oil company’s contractors to access funds to finance projects in the sector.
Under the arrangement, the accredited banks would finance contractors while there would be domiciliation of payments to the banks.
The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Total, Guy Maurice said the essence was to bridge the funding gap for the company’s local contractors which includes vendors and suppliers.
According to him, the MoU makes for sustainable funding relationship between the selected banks and Total’s indigenous contractors.
He congratulated the banks that emerged through the rigorous process even as he said the initiative would enhance local contractors participation in the company’s entire value chain business.
Also speaking, the Managing Director of Ecobank Nigeria, Jibril Aku said the programme was laudable adding that Ecobank was pleased to have been selected as one of the participating banks.