President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has written to the Senate and House of Representatives, seeking for the approval of the parliament, to obtain a loan of $ 8, 699, 168, 559 and €100million.
President Tinubu in a letter addressed to the Senate President Godswill Akpabio and speaker, Tajudeen Abbas, and read by them at Tuesday’s plenary, said the loans are part of the 2022-2024 External Borrowing plan of the federal government.
This is as the President, in another letter, also addressed to Abbas, formally notified the lawmakers of his intention to present the 2024 Appropriation Bill to the National Assembly today.
President Tinubu explained that the fresh loans, part of which would be sourced from the World Bank and the African Development Bank (AfDB), would be deployed towards the funding of critical infrastructural projects in power, railway, health, among others.
The letter read in part: “Honourable members may wish to know that the past administration approved the 2022 -2024 borrowing plan at the Federal Executive Council held on 15 May 2023.
“The projects cut across sectors with specific emphasis on infrastructure, agriculture, health, education, water supply, roads, security, and employment generation as well as financial management among others.
“Following the removal of the fuel subsidy and its attendant impact on our economy, African Development Bank and the World bank group have indicated interest in assisting the country to mitigate the impact with the sum of one billion USD and 1.5 billion USD respectively.In addition to the FEC approved 2022-2024 external abridged borrowing plan.
“Consequently, the required approval is in the sum of 8, 699, 168, 559 USD, and 100 million euros.
“I would like to underscore the fact that the projects and programmes in the borrowing plan were selected based on positive technical economic evaluation; as well as the expected contribution to the socio-economic development of the country including employment generation, skills acquisition, support towards the emergence of young entrepreneurs, poverty reduction and food security to improve the livelihood in all 36 states and the FCT.
“Considering the huge infrastructure deficit in the country and the enormous financial resources required to bridge the gap in funding infrastructure in the face of dwindling financial resources, it has become imperative that we resort to prudent external borrowing to bridge the financial gap; which will be largely applied to key infrastructure projects including power, railway, health among others.
“Given the nature of these facilities and the need to return the country to normalcy, it has become necessary to request the House of Representatives to consider and approve the 2022-2024 external abridged borrowing plan, to enable the government deliver its responsibilities to Nigerians, through expedient disbursement and efficient project implementation.”
Quadri Olaitan is a journalist and contributor to Freelanews.com, covering news, public affairs, and human-interest stories.
