Business
General Hydrocarbons Limited Vs FBN: The Explainer GHL vs FBN: The Facts, The Half-Truths and The Fiction
GHL will continue to fight for justice and damages whilst it remains open for mediation and resolution
1. Is GHL’s liability to First Bank a loan? The simple answer is NO, as it is not a normal commercial loan: it is a Project Finance relationship.
Here is how:
2. GHL is the awardee and licenced operator of OML 120. FBN approached GHL to finance the exploration, development and production of OML 120and share profit 50:50, while paying FBN cost of finance.
The FBN 50% share is dedicated to paydown its non-performing loan of $600million(discounted from $718million from AMCON’s Eligible Bank Asset) in order to resolve FBN’s solvency issues.In doing that, GHL guaranteed FBN’s liability to AMCON, through a Tripartite Agreement between GHL, FBN and AMCON.
3. The result of the Tripartite Agreement was that FBN became immediately profitable and moved from a loss of N302Billion to a profit of N151Bn for 2021 FYE. However, in return, it has failed to meet its commitment under the Tripartite Agreement to fully finance and make the payments required for the optimal exploration and development of OML 120 as agreed in the Tripartite Agreement, resulting in losses in day rates and downtimes of $47million, which has snowballed into the current impasseas FBN has failed to make further required payments for the drilling and exploration of OML 120. Essentially, FBN failed to fulfil its condition precedent to profitability in failing to finance OML 120 as agreed, leavingits financial statements open to challenge. Meanwhile the FBN’s claim of $225Million loan is not due as it is still covered by moratorium, given that the project has not achieved commercial production. So, at best FBN’sclaim is premature.
4. GHL has now gone for Arbitration which is ongoing and FBN has gone to court with a series of Exparte (temporary) Mareva measures, the first of which has been vacated and the case is now being heard on the merit, whilst the second temporary Mareva is pending at the Federal High Court in Port-Harcourt, Rivers State, both supported by” wild, unfounded and unproven allegations of dissipation of assets.”
5. Did GHL dissipate any asset? The answer is no as all payments were made by First Bank DIRECTLY to 3rd parties after due diligence and verifications by FBN, and the 3rd parties are mainly global, world class, reputable companies with strict compliance regimes.
6. GHL is filing a claim of over $1Billion in various courts, while FBN is claiming $225million debt which it never complied with in line with the agreements.
GHL will continue to fight for justice and damages whilst it remains open for mediation and resolution.
Business
CBN admits it opened domiciliary accounts for PFIPC agency
Represented by the Director of its Banking Services Department, Hamisu Ibrahim, the CBN said that the accounts are one in US dollars, the other in British pounds sterling, were opened following a mandate received from the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation.
File photo : PFIPC agency DG, Adeniyi Adeyemi
The Central Bank of Nigeria had admitted that it opened two foreign-currency domiciliary accounts for the controversial Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council (PFIPC).
The apex bank made the confirmation, yesterday, during the public hearing convened at the National Assembly Complex by the House of Representatives Ad-hoc Committee investigating the existence and operations of the PFIPC, chaired by Yusuf Gagdi and inaugurated by Speaker Tajudeen Abbas.
Represented by the Director of its Banking Services Department, Hamisu Ibrahim, the CBN said that the accounts are one in US dollars, the other in British pounds sterling, were opened following a mandate received from the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation.
He explained that on July 30, 2025, CBN received a mandate dated July 29, 2025 from the Office of the Accountant-General.
“We received the mandate to authorise two accounts, one a US dollar domiciliary account, the other a pound domiciliary account, for the Presidential Economic Advisory Council/Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council,” Ibrahim told the committee.
He explained the CBN’s verification process, “The process of opening an account requires a mandate from the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation.
“Once we receive that mandate, we perform all the necessary verifications to confirm that this mandate is actually coming from that office.
The department that handles the mandate is different from the department that actually does the account opening,” he said.
Nevertheless, he noted that no one came to activate the accounts after they were opened.“We did not receive any correspondence, mandate, signature or mandate cards. We were not introduced to the authorising or approving officers.“Based on that, those accounts remain inactive, with zero balance. There have been no foreign exchange allocations.
BLACK MARKET RATES
US DOLLAR (USD) Buy ₦1, 410 Sell ₦1,415
GREAT BRITISH POUND (GBP) Buy ₦1,890 Sell: ₦1,910
EURO (EUR) Buy ₦1,580 Sell ₦1,600
CANADIAN DOLLAR (CAD) Buy ₦1,020 Sell ₦1,080
SOUTH AFRICAN RAND (ZAR) Buy ₦75 Sell ₦90
UAE DIRHAM Buy ₦350 Sell ₦370 CHINESE YUAN Buy ₦190 Sell ₦205
GHANA CEDI (GHS) Buy ₦95 Sell ₦110
WEST AFRICAN CFA Buy ₦2, 300 Sell ₦2, 400
CENTRAL AFRICAN CFA Buy ₦2,150 Sell 2,250
AUSTRALIAN DOLLAR Buy ₦800 Sell ₦900
CBN OFFICIAL EXCHANGE RATES
US DOLLAR (USD) ₦1,380.11
GREAT BRITISH POUND (GBP) ₦1,857.35
EURO (EUR) ₦1,575.95
SWISS FRANC (CHF) ₦1,705. 31
JAPANESE YEN (JPN) ₦8.50
CHINESE YUAN (CNY) ₦203.94
WEST AFRICAN CFA (XOF) ₦2.40
WEST AFRICAN UNIT ACCOUNT (WAUA) ₦1,874. 32
SAUDI RIYAL (SAR) ₦367.49
SOUTH AFRICAN RAND (ZAR) ₦83.69
BLACK MARKET RATES
US DOLLAR (USD) Buy ₦1, 416 Sell ₦1,422
GREAT BRITISH POUND (GBP) Buy ₦1,895 Sell: ₦1,915
EURO (EUR) Buy ₦1,590 Sell ₦1,610
CANADIAN DOLLAR (CAD) Buy ₦1,020 Sell ₦1,080
SOUTH AFRICAN RAND (ZAR) Buy ₦75 Sell ₦90
UAE DIRHAM Buy ₦350 Sell ₦370 CHINESE YUAN Buy ₦190 Sell ₦205
GHANA CEDI (GHS) Buy ₦95 Sell ₦110
WEST AFRICAN CFA Buy ₦2, 300 Sell ₦2, 400
CENTRAL AFRICAN CFA Buy ₦2,150 Sell 2,250
AUSTRALIAN DOLLAR Buy ₦800 Sell ₦900
CBN OFFICIAL EXCHANGE RATES
US DOLLAR (USD) ₦1,380.18
GREAT BRITISH POUND (GBP) ₦1,854.42
EURO (EUR) ₦1,577.00
SWISS FRANC (CHF) ₦1,707.94
JAPANESE YEN (JPN) ₦8.50
CHINESE YUAN (CNY) ₦203.57
WEST AFRICAN CFA (XOF) ₦2.40
WEST AFRICAN UNIT ACCOUNT (WAUA) ₦1,874. 32
SAUDI RIYAL (SAR) ₦367.48
SOUTH AFRICAN RAND (ZAR) ₦83.29
CBN admits it opened domiciliary accounts for PFIPC agency
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