The Senate have approved the $8.3 billion (N8,325,536,537) together with a separate €490 million loan request by President Muhammadu Buhari.
Both loans were ticked good under the 2018 – 2020 External Borrowing (Rolling) Plan. The money was approved on Thursday, July 15, after the upper house considered the report of the Senate Committee on Local and Foreign Debts. The Chairman of the committee, Clifford Ordia, presented the report.
President Muhammadu Buhari had in May, asked the National Assembly to endorse the loan.
The signing of the loan, he said, would enable projects listed under the 2018-2020 External Borrowing Plan 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, lPEX, AFC, India EximBank and International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).
In his presentation, Mr Ordia stated that the projects are set towards the realisation of the Nigerian 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 in the six geo-political zones of the country.
The Senate accepted the committee’s report and approved the loan thereafter.
