The Federal Executive Council has approved a loan of about $618m form a group of financiers for the procurement of six fighter aircraft and ammunition for the Nigerian Air Force.

This was disclosed by the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, in Abuja on Wednesday following the conclusion of the FEC meeting presided by President Bola Tinubu, reports Voice of Nigeria.

Idris, who stood in for the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, said, “From the Honorable Minister of Finance, who is away on official duty in the US. I’m going to let you know what those FEC approvals are.

“The first one is that there have been approvals for some contracts, about seven of them for the Nigerian custom service. The next one is that there’s an approval for an agreement for the elimination of double taxation with respect to taxes on income and prevention of tax evasion and avoidance between the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China.

“The third one is an approval to obtain a credit facility in a sum of 443,330,781.49 euros and another 141 million US dollars from a group of financiers for the procurement of six units of M346 fighter aircraft and ammunition for the Nigerian Air Force. And the last one from the Federal Ministry of Finance is the approval for signing of an agreement for the elimination of double taxation with respect to taxes on income and the prevention of tax evasion and avoidance between the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Republic of Botswana.”

Earlier in October, the Air Force said it was acquiring 24 M-346 combat jets and 10 AW109 Trekker helicopters as part of a fleet renewal strategy. The first three M-346 jets are expected to be delivered by early 2025, with subsequent deliveries running until mid-2026.

At the press briefing, it was also revealed that the FEC had approved the establishment of the Creative Economy Fund to ensure the deepening of the sector.

Minister of Art, Culture, Tourism and Creative Economy, Hannatu Musawa, told State House Correspondents that the Council approved the establishment of the Creative Economy Fund.

“FEC gave approval for the creation of a Creative Economy Development Fund. This is a special purpose vehicle that will allow members within the creative economy to have access to funding and use their IP as collateral in terms of monetisation. We identified very early on that the very basic structures in order for us to really tap into the potential of the creative economy was missing.

“So, we got to work in putting up those structures. IP policy is one of those very basic structures that was missing. We are working together with the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment and with the Ministry of Justice to ensure that we deliver IP policy, hopefully within maximum, at the very last phase, within the next two weeks.

“This is a special purpose vehicle that will give them funding that will be able to allow us to leverage funding that we’re getting. We already have commitment, for example, from Afreximbank that has committed to giving us $200m and a number of other sources.