A London court has ordered the release of the $200 million guarantee placed as security by the Nigerian government in relation to the Process and Industrial Development (P&ID) $10 billion arbitral claim.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) made this known in a series of tweets on Tuesday.
The bank said the development led to a rise in the nation’s foreign reserves.
Nigeria’s Foreign Exchange Reserves was boosted by over $200Million when the London Commercial Court ordered the release of the $200Million guarantee put in place as security in respect of the execution of the much discredited P&ID $10 Billion Arbitral Claim.
The CBN also disclosed that the court awarded £70,000 cost in favour of Nigeria in addition to an earlier award of £1.5 million.
“Nigeria’s foreign exchange reserves was this morning boosted by over $200 million when the London Commercial Court ordered the release of the $200 million guarantee put in place as security in respect of the execution of the much discredited P&ID $10 billion arbitral claim,” the CBN wrote.
“The court also awarded a £70,000 cost in favour of Nigeria in addition to an earlier award of £1.5 million.”
It would be recalled that in September, the Nigerian government secured a judgement of a British court to suspend an unfavourable ruling over the scandal.
A commercial court in the United Kingdom granted Nigeria’s appeal for a stay of execution of the award of $8.9 billion (about N3.2 trillion) in favour of P&ID, a controversial British firm that secured a gas contract in Nigeria.
The Royal Courts of Justice Strand, London, WC2A 2LL presided over by Justice Sir Ross Cranston said following a review of written submissions by the Nigerian government after the arbitral award, which contained “new evidence” concerning the matter in dispute, the court decided to grant “Nigeria’s applications for an extension of time and relief from sanctions.”
The P&ID conundrum became a full-blown saga last year when a U.K. judge ruled P&ID could enforce an arbitration tribunal’s 2017 ruling, now totaling $9.6 billion including interest, which found the country breached the agreement.