By Nathaniel Zacchaeus and Linus Aleke, Abuja
The House of Representatives received a letter from President Bola Tinubu seeking approval for an additional loan facility of $800m.
Also, the Senate yesterday approved the request of the President to amend the 2022 Supplementary Act totalling N819.5bn.
The World Bank loan, the President’s letter said, will be used to finance the National Social Safety Net Programme.
Tinubu told the Parliament that N8, 000 will be paid to 12 million families over six months as a means of ameliorating the hardships faced by Nigerians as a result of subsidy removal.
In a letter to the House of Representatives, read by Speaker Tajudeen Abbas during plenary on Tuesday, Tinubu said it was support for poor and vulnerable Nigerians and to help them cope with the cost of meeting basic needs.
The letter was for approval of additional financing for the national social safety net programme (scale-up) by the National Assembly.
The President said this would have a multiplier effect on about 60 million individuals.
To guarantee the credibility of the process, he said, digital transfers would be made directly to beneficiaries’ accounts.
According to the letter, “It is with pleasure that I refer the above matter to you. Please note that the Federal Executive Council led by President Muhammadu Buhari approved an additional loan facility to the tune of USD800,000,000 (Eight Hundred Million United States Dollars) to be secured from the World Bank for the National Social Safety Net Programme (the “Programme”) (Copy of FEC Extract attached).
“You may also wish to note that the purpose of the facility is to expand coverage of shock-responsive safety net support for poor and vulnerable Nigerians and to help them cope with the cost of meeting basic needs.
“You may further wish to note that under the conditional cash transfer window of the Programme, the Federal Government of Nigeria will transfer the sum of N8,000 per month to twelve million poor and low-income households for six months with a multiplier effect on about 60 million individuals. To guarantee the credibility of the process, digital transfers will be made directly to beneficiaries’ accounts and mobile wallets.”
The letter concluded that it is expected that the Programme will stimulate economic activity in the informal sector and improve nutrition, health, and education outcomes for beneficiary households.
*As NASS approves N500bn Tinubu’s request for palliatives
The upper legislative chamber also approved for the President, the go-ahead, to remove N500bn from the N819bn.
He said the fund would enable the Federal Government to provide palliatives to Nigerians, to cushion the effects of the recent removal of subsidies on petroleum products.
The proposed legislation is titled, “A bill for an act to amend the 2022 Supplementary Appropriation Act to provide the extraction of funds from the Supplementary Appropriation Act for the provision of palliatives to cushion the effects of fuel subsidy.”
Tinubu in another official communication yesterday urged the Senate to approve a borrowing request of $800m to scale up the National Social Safety Net Programme
The request was earlier sent to the Upper Chamber by Muhammadu Buhari’s administration in the 9th National Assembly but was not treated by the former Senate President Ahmad Lawan-led red chamber.
Buhari had, towards the end of his administration, sent the official communication to the 9th Senate in May.
The 9th Assembly could not consider the request, which was approved by Buhari’s Federal Executive Council before its tenure ended on June 11.
Tinubu, in a fresh letter read by Senate President Godswill Akpabio during plenary Thursday, asked the 10th Senate to approve the borrowing request.
The president, in the letter, explained that the loan would be used to scale up the National Social Safety Net Programme.
He said the new borrowing would be sourced from the World Bank.
Part of Tinubu’s letter read, “Please note that the Federal Executive Council led by President Muhammadu Buhari approved an additional loan facility to the tune of $800m to be secured from the World Bank for the National Social Safety Net programme. A copy of the Federal Executive Council’s extract is attached.
“You may also wish to note that the purpose of the facility is to expand coverage of shock-responsive safety net support among the poor and vulnerable Nigerians. This will assist them in coping with basic needs.
“You may further wish to note that under the conditional cash transfer window of the programme, the Federal Government of Nigeria will transfer the sum of N8,000 per month to 12 million poor and low-income households for six months, with a multiplier effect on about 60 million individuals.
“To guarantee the credibility of the process, digital transfers will be made directly to beneficiaries’ accounts and mobile wallets.
“It is expected that the programme, will stimulate economic activities in the informal sector, and improve nutrition, health, education, and human capital development of beneficiaries’ households.
“Given the above, I wish to invite the Senate to kindly approve the additional loan facility of $800m to be secured from World Bank for the National Social Safety Net Programme.
“While hoping that this submission will receive expeditious consideration by the Senate, please accept the assurances of my highest regards.”
*$800m loan request to fund N819.5bn 2022 Supplementary Budget as Senators, Reps get N70bn to support working conditions
Giving further clarifications on the official communications from the President, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriation, Senator Solomon Adeola, said the N819bn Supplementary Budget was passed during the consideration of the controversial Central Bank of Nigeria’s N22.7trn ways and means advances.
Adeola said, “I want my colleagues to understand what we are doing here. In 2023, two budgets were passed, the main budget and the supplementary budget.
“As per the main budget, that is currently ongoing. The supplementary budget was passed when there was consideration for ways and means by the Senate and that amounted to N819bn.
“It was signed into law by former President Muhammadu Buhari, while the 2023 budget was ongoing. The Supplementary budget had yet to be implemented.
“Now, we are all aware of the current happenings and reforms being introduced by this new administration which include subsidy removal and some other economic reforms put in place.
“There is no doubt that there were challenging times for Nigerians which this present administration must attend to urgently. The supplementary budget of N819bn will be amended to take care of some of these palliatives.
“As such the President went to the documents and reordered and that was where this said 500 billion is coming from.
The Senate President called for a closed session which lasted about 30 minutes.
After the executive session, Akpabio gave the breakdown of the Supplementary Budget.
He said N500bn for palliatives and other capital expenditures to cushion the effect of the recent subsidy removal policy.
He also said N185,236,937,815 had been approved by the Ministry of Works and Housing to alleviate the impact of the severe flooding experienced in the country in 2022 on road infrastructure across the six geo-political zones.
Similarly, he said the sum of N19,200,000,000 has been approved for the Federal Ministry of Agriculture to ameliorate the massive destruction to farmlands across the country during the severe flooding experienced last year.
The sum of N35bn was also allocated to National Judicial Council, while N10bn was allocated to the Federal Capital Territory Administration for critical projects
The National Assembly got N70bn to support the working conditions of new members
