By Andy Asemota
The Senate has approved the request of President Muhammad Buhari for external borrowing of N2.343 trillion (about 6.183 billion US dollars) in the 2021 Appropriation Act.
The legislature unanimously okayed the request of the President on the implementation of Donor Fund Projects under the 2018 – 2020 Federal Government External Borrowing (Rolling) Plan on Monday and referred it to the Senate Committee on Local and Foreign Debts to report back within four weeks.
The resolution followed a voice vote in the plenary presided over by the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, after the Senate Leader, Senator Yahaya Abubakar Abdullahi, tabled the executive communication from President Buhari.
Recall the Senate had on 6th May 2021, considered and gave its concurrent approval for the Projects listed under the 2018-2020 External Borrowing Plan are to be financed through sovereign loans from the World Bank, African Development Bank (AfDB), French Development Agency (AFD), Islamic Development Bank, China Eximbank, China Development Bank, European Investment Bank, European ECA, KfW, IPEX, AFC, India EximBank and International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) at a total sum of USD 36,837,281,256 plus Euro 910,000,000 and Grant Component of USD 10,000,000.
Buhari seeks more external loan of $6.183 bn to fund budget
The Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, who made this known, noted that the projects and programs in the Borrowing Plan were selected based on positive, technical, and economic evaluations as well as the contribution they would make to the socio-economic development of the country including employment generation and poverty reduction as well as protection of the most vulnerable and very poor segments of the Nigerian society.
According to him, all the listed projects formed part of the 2018 — 2020 External Borrowing Plan and covered both the Federal and States Governments’ Projects and are geared towards the realization of the Nigeria Economic Sustainability Plan that cut across key sectors such as Infrastructure, Health, Agriculture and Food Security, Energy, Education, and Human Capital Development and COVID 19 Response efforts.
A summary of some key projects in each of the six geopolitical zones and a summary on the expected impacts on the socio-economic development of each of the six (6) geo-political zones were to the request attached as Annex II and III.
Buhari maintained in his letter that given the importance attached to the timely delivery of the projects listed in the proposed Borrowing Plan and the benefits both the Federal and States Governments would stand to gain from the implementation of same, he craved the consideration and concurrent approval of the Senate for the 2018 — 2020 Federal Government External Borrowing (Rolling) Plan to enable the projects to become effective.
