Early Warning System

Regions

Africa

Geographic location where the impacts of the investment may be experienced.

Countries

Nigeria

Geographic location where the impacts of the investment may be experienced.

Financial Institutions

International Finance Corporation (IFC)

International, regional and national development finance institutions. Many of these banks have a public interest mission, such as poverty reduction.

Project Status

Approved

Stage of the project cycle. Stages vary by development bank and can include: pending, approval, implementation, and closed or completed.

Bank Risk Rating

Environmental and social categorization assessed by the development bank as a measure of the planned project’s environmental and social impacts. A higher risk rating may require more due diligence to limit or avoid harm to people and the environment. For example, "A" or "B" are risk categories where "A" represents the highest amount of risk. Results will include projects that specifically recorded a rating, all other projects are marked ‘U’ for "Undisclosed."

Voting Date

Jun 3, 2022

Date when project documentation and funding is reviewed by the Board for consideration and approval. Some development banks will state a "board date" or "decision date." When funding approval is obtained, the legal documents are accepted and signed, the implementation phase begins.

Borrower

ZENITH BANK PLC

A public entity (government or state-owned) provided with funds or financial support to manage and/or implement a project.

Sectors

Energy
Finance

The service or industry focus of the investment. A project can have several sectors.

Investment Type(s)

Loan

The categories of the bank investment: loan, grant, guarantee, technical assistance, advisory services, equity and fund.

Investment Amount (USD)

$ 250.00 million

Value listed on project documents at time of disclosure. If necessary, this amount is converted to USD ($) on the date of disclosure. Please review updated project documents for more information.

Primary Source

Original disclosure @ IFC website

Updated in EWS Dec 16, 2024

Disclosed by Bank Apr 14, 2022

Contribute Information
Can you contribute information about this project?
Contact the EWS Team

Project Description

If provided by the financial institution, the Early Warning System Team writes a short summary describing the purported development objective of the project and project components. Review the complete project documentation for a detailed description.

According to the Bank’s website, the project consists of a Working Capital Solutions (‘WCS’) facility to Zenith Bank Plc. of up to US$250 million. The facility will have a maturity of up to 3 years and will complement the existing FIG COVID-19 Emergency Response WCS facility (Project# 43988) that was committed in June 2020 and rolled over in June 2021. The project will enable the Bank to provide working capital and trade finance facilities to enterprises in Nigeria, including MSMEs impacted by COVID-19.

The financial intermediary’s finance report indicates loans to unspecified oil and gas activities in 2022 and 2023.

Bank disclosures on financial intermediary sub-projects are often limited. Although the bank disclosures did not categorize this as an energy project, civil society research has linked this project with oil and gas. Therefore, for purposes of this snapshot and other research, the Early Warning System team has categorized this project as an "Energy" project.

Early Warning System Project Analysis

For a project with severe or irreversible impacts to local community and natural resources, the Early Warning System Team may conduct a thorough analysis regarding its potential impacts to human and environmental rights.

The IFC categorized the project risk as FI-2.

Investment Description

Here you can find a list of individual development financial institutions that finance the project.

International Finance Corporation (IFC)

Financial Intermediary

A financial intermediary is a bank or financial institution that receives funds from a development bank. A financial intermediary then lends these funds to their clients (private actors) in the form of loans, bonds, guarantees and equity shares. Financial intermediaries include insurance, pension and equity funds. The direct financial relationship is between the development bank and the financial intermediary.

Zenith Bank Plc (Financial Intermediary)

Contact Information

This section aims to support the local communities and local CSO to get to know which stakeholders are involved in a project with their roles and responsibilities. If available, there may be a complaint office for the respective bank which operates independently to receive and determine violations in policy and practice. Independent Accountability Mechanisms receive and respond to complaints. Most Independent Accountability Mechanisms offer two functions for addressing complaints: dispute resolution and compliance review.

Financial Intermediary - Zenith Bank Plc:

Ihinosen Ohiwerei
FX Personnel, Financial Institutions Group
+23480346745
Ihinosen.Ohiwerei@zenithbank.com
P.O Box 75315, Victoria Island, Lagos, Nigeria
https://www.zenithbank.com/

ACCESS TO INFORMATION

You can submit a request for information disclosure at: https://disclosures.ifc.org/#/inquiries

If you believe that your request for information from IFC has been unreasonably denied, or that this Policy has been interpreted incorrectly, you can submit a complaint at the link above to IFC's Access to Information Policy Advisor, who reports directly to IFC's Executive Vice President.

ACCOUNTABILITY MECHANISM OF IFC/MIGA

The Compliance Advisor Ombudsman (CAO) is the independent complaint mechanism and fact-finding body for people who believe they are likely to be, or have been, adversely affected by an IFC or MIGA- financed project. If you submit a complaint to the CAO, they may assist you in resolving a dispute with the company and/or investigate to assess whether the IFC is following its own policies and procedures for preventing harm to people or the environment. If you want to submit a complaint electronically, you can email the CAO at CAO@worldbankgroup.org You can learn more about the CAO and how to file a complaint at http://www.cao-ombudsman.org