By Amaka Agwuegbo
United Bank for Africa (UBA) has secured a 234 million euro oil and gas financing deal with Société Africaine de Raffinage (SAR), the national refinery of Senegal.

To be executed in three parts, the first part is a crude oil financing facility of 180 million euro, followed with a short term loan of 54 million euro to finance stock and receivables and then a receivable financing facility of 60 million euro.

Speaking at the signing ceremony, which was witnessed by the Senegalese Minister of Energy, Mr. Samuel Sarr, the CEO, UBA Africa, Mr. Rasheed Olaoluwa, said the transaction is the largest outside of Nigeria and comes on the heels of UBA’s lead role in the $265million supplementary refinancing deal for Exxon Mobil and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

“We are positioned to support governments and institutions actualize growth and development potentials in Senegal and across Africa, thus making UBA a financial partner of choice for major players in the oil and gas sector in Africa.”

Commenting on the deal, Senegalese Minister for Energy, Samuel Sarr,  said the development is  historical for Senegal and for UBA Group.

“The UBA/SAR deal demonstrates the increasing importance of intra-African finance, with African institutions ready and willing to provide long term and sophisticated financial solutions to African clients.

“The transaction also underlines the strong relationship between Nigeria and Senegal, and brings with it the potential for the refining of Nigerian crude by SAR.”  

UBA Plc is one of Africa’s leading financial institutions offering universal banking to more than 7 million customer accounts across Africa and key financial centres.

It currently operates in 16  African countries including Nigeria, Benin, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Sénégal, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Gabon, Chad, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania,and Zambia.

It equally has presence in New York, London and Paris thus being able to effectively arbitrage Africa an African related business globally.