After years of stop-and-go litigation, Nigeria could be on the hook for a debilitating $11 billion payout if a trial which started on Monday in a London court doesn’t go its way.
The Nigerian government urged the UK high court to stop the hedge fund-backed firm Process & Industrial Development Ltd. from collecting a massive arbitration award that was handed down in 2017 following a failed — and allegedly fraudulent — gas deal. That amount equals almost a third of Nigeria’s forex reserves, and its payout would deal a huge blow to Africa’s largest economy, which is still recovering from a pandemic-induced recession.
