NFF, Super Eagles Biggest Sponsors Aiteo Riddled With $1.7 Billion Debts
The biggest sponsors of the NFF and the Super Eagles , Aiteo, are riddled with staggering debts of about $1.7 Billion being loans from Shell and several Nigerian banks.
Oil company Aiteo are the major sponsors of the Super Eagles and also the title sponsors of the country’s oldest club competition, the FA Cup.
The deals are worth several Billions of Naira.
Aiteo Eastern E&P Co. purchased a pipeline and an operating interest in one of the nation’s most prized onshore oil blocks seven years ago for $2.4 billion.
Zenith Bank Plc, Fidelity Bank Plc, Guaranty Trust Bank Plc and other Nigerian lenders loaned the company $1.5 billion to support the acquisition, while Shell – the seller of the assets – provided $504 million in financing.
The parties have been locked in a tangled legal dispute since October 2019 when the creditors notified Aiteo that it was in default.
The lenders claim the debt owed climbed to $1.7 billion by the end of last year, from less than $300 million in late 2019, according to a ruling by the English commercial court on Apr. 1. The rising sum is due to missed repayments, unpaid interest and default penalties, the financiers said when they began an arbitration case against Aiteo in late 2020, when the amount stood at $910 million.
