A US$9mn medium-term loan guarantee approved by US Exim Bank is supporting four US suppliers selling telecommunication equipment to Monarch Communications Ltd, a private Nigerian telecommunication company that will provide telephone, wireless and internet services with the new equipment.

The four US exporters supplying various telecoms equipment are: Danet, Inc of Wexford, PA; Airspan Networks Inc of Ft Lauderdale, FL; Avaya Inc of Basking Ridge, NJ; and, DMC Stratex Networks Inc of San Jose, CA. Riggs Bank of Washington, DC is the guaranteed lender for this sale. Monarch Communications Ltd is a newly established telecommunication company operating in Lagos, Nigeria.

The new telecommunication equipment it is purchasing will allow the company to offer services to 30,000 user dial ups, 5,000 on-demand customers and 5,000 wireless subscribers.

Since October 1997, Exim has authorised US$178mn worth of US exports to Nigeria. In October 2002, Ex-Im approved its largest private sector financing ever for Nigeria: a US$135mn loan guarantee for Nigeria LNG Ltd.