The Senate on Wednesday approved a loan request of $6.1 billion by President Muhammadu Buhari.
The $6.1 billion which is about N2.343 trillion was approved following the consideration of the report of the Senate Committee on Local and Foreign Debts at plenary. Chairman of the committee, Senator Clifford Ordia, presented the report.
President Buhari had in May, asked the National Assembly to consider and approve the loan.
The loan, he said, will be raised from multilateral and bilateral lenders as well as the international capital market.
He also disclosed that the National Assembly already approved the borrowing of N4.6 trillion in the 2021 Appropriation Act and that the new borrowing of N2.3 trillion will part-finance the deficit in the 2021 budget.
In his presentation, Senator Ordia said the request is not new as it had already been approved in the borrowing plan when the National Assembly passed the 2021 Appropriation Bill.
“What we are about to pass is not a new borrowing, it has been approved in the 2021 budget,” he said.
After the approval, the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, said the National Assembly must make sure that there are no frivolous expenditures by the executive.
“Let me thank the committee, this is not a new loan. This is a borrowing plan we have approved. What we have done is to provide the necessary resolutions for the implementation of it.
“Every cent counts. Our committees must be alive to oversee it. No frivolous expenditures should be entertained.”
Nigeria’s 2021 budget already has a deficit of N5.6 trillion.
The President had said the loan will be used to fund “projects from priority sectors of the economy namely: power, transportation, agriculture and rural development, education, health, provision of counterpart funding for multilateral and bilateral projects, defence and water resources.”
The Senate on Wednesday also passed the 2021 Supplementary Budget of N982, 729,695,343.00 representing an increase of N87 billion of the request presented to it two weeks ago by Presiden Buhari.
Buhari had proposed N895,842,465,917.00 but the Senate Committee on Appropriation in its report presented by the Chairman, Senator Jibrin Barau, increased it to N982,729,695,343.
The breakdown of the budget showed that N123,332,174,164 is for recurrent (non-debt) expenditure while the sum of N859, 397,521,179 is for contribution to the development fund for capital expenditure.
Buhari had said that the amount was needed to fund the COVID-19 vaccine programme and health related expenditures for treatment of additional 50,000 patients under the Nigeria Comprehensive AIDS Programme in states.
He said part of the money would be used to procure additional equipment captured in this year’s capital expenditure on defence and security to combat security challenges across the country.
The Nation