Senate approves Buhari’s $8.325bn, €490m loan request

The Senate has approved President Muhammadu Buhari’s request for ongoing external loans to the tune of $8,325,526,537 and €490,000,000 under the 20182020 External Borrowing (Rolling) Plan.

This followed the consideration of a report on the 2018-2020 External Borrowing (Rolling) Plan by the Senate Committee on Local and Foreign Debt yesterday.

The chairman of the committee, Senator Clifford Ordia, said the committee noted the concern of Nigerians about the level and serviceability of the country’s borrowings in the last decade.

He said: “Our debt service figures constitute a huge drain on our revenue to the extent that it accounts for over 30 percent of our expenditure in the annual budget.”

He explained that due to the shortfall in the country’s annual revenues in relation to the need for rapid infrastructural and human capital development, “we’ve had to pass deficit budget every year, requiring us to borrow to finance the deficit in our budget.”

According to him, the fund is to be sourced from international lenders like the World Bank, $796,000,000; China Exim Bank, $2,901,026,509; the Industrial Commercial Bank of China, $2,484,555,304; the African Development Bank, $104,200,000; the Africa Growing Together Fund, $20,000,000; the French Development Agency, €240,000,000; the European Investment Bank, €250,000,000; the European ECA/KfW/ IPEX/AFC, $1,959,744,724 and the International Fund For Agricultural Development, $60,000,000.