National Assembly Approves Buhari’s $5.5bn Budget Loan, $22.7bn Facility ‌

•S’East, N’East to be catered for in next borrowing round

Sunday Aborisade and Leke Baiyewu

The House of Representatives has approved the request by the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), for the Federal Government to borrow foreign loans totalling $22.79bn.

The approval by the House was in concurrence with the Senate.

The $22.79bn loan was approved less than one week after Buhari wrote to the National Assembly to request approval of fresh external borrowings totalling $5.513bn.

Buhari had, in his letter read in the Senate and House on Thursday, said the funds were for 2020 budget deficit, financing of critical projects and some states of the federation.

The states include Kaduna, Katsina and Kogi.

The $22.79bn loan is part of the 2016–2018 Federal Government External Borrowing (Rolling) Plan.

The Senate had on March 6 approved the loan amidst controversy. The Minority Leader, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, had particularly led the protests.

The House on March 11 suspended its consideration of the request indefinitely.

The Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila, would later on March 18 disclose that the protest by National Assembly members from the South-East geopolitical zone led to the suspension of work on the loan.

He had said the House was already in talks with the Federal Government officials on how the zone would be accommodated in the execution of projects with the loan.

At the plenary on Tuesday, the House considered and adopted the report by the Committee on Aids, Loans and Debt Management led by Mr Ahmed Safana, which inserted the Port Harcourt-Maiduguri rail line project, asking the Federal Government to seek a separate loan for its execution.

The committee recommended “that the Federal Government should source funding for Port Harcourt-Maiduguri rail line in the next borrowing plan.

"While several members from the South-East and North-East geopolitical zones insisted on inserting the Port Harcourt-Maiduguri rail line project on the list of those to be financed with the $22.79bn, Gbajabiamila explained that an agreement had been reached with the executive arm of government to include it in a subsequent facility.

The Speaker noted that the leadership of the House had drawn the commitment of the finance minister that the project must be captured in the next loan if the lawmakers must approve it.

The committee in its report, a copy of which our correspondent obtained, echoed the concerns expressed by Nigerians on the country’s rising debt profile and the implication for the economy.

Senate approves Buhari’s $5.513bn foreign loan request

Meanwhile, the Senate on Tuesday approved the $5,513,000,000 external loan request submitted to it by Buhari last Thursday.

The President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, who read the covering letter that accompanied the loan request last week, had asked the Committee on Local and Foreign Debts to work on the document.

Buhari had said the loan request would enable his government to fund the revised 2020 budget following the dwindling oil revenue occasioned by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Local and Foreign Debts, Senator Clifford Ordia, read the report of his panel which was approved by the Senate.

The loan would be sourced from multilateral and bilateral institutions.