Shell said in May it would exit its onshore oil position in Nigeria, which it no longer considers compatible with its strategic ambitions.

“When I look at the books of Nigerian banks today, I don’t see a lot of dollar liquidity,” Agbaje told an investor conference call in Lagos on Tuesday. “It’s becoming a very difficult deal for people to pull off.”

Nigerian banks, which in 2013 syndicated $3.3 billion debt to Dangote Industries for a refinery and petrochemical plant and recently financed Heirs Holding’s $1.1 billion acquisition of OML 17, have seen their capacity to take on such deals wane considerably. A slump in crude prices and an economic downturn arising from the coronavirus pandemic curbed foreign-currency flows into Africa’s largest crude producer and pressured reserves.