Senate Approves Buhari’s $5.523bn Loan Request

The Senate on Tuesday approved the $5.513 billion external loan request sent to it last month by the Executive to fund the revised 2020 Appropriation bill.

This is just as the Red Chamber adjourned plenary till Tuesday, June 9 to consider the report of the Appropriation committee headed by Senator Barau Jibrin on the revised 2020 Appropriation Bill.

In approving the external loan request, the Senate at plenary considered the report of the Senator Uba Sani-led committee on foreign and local debts and gave extant approval to the Executive to source the external loans to fund the budget deficit.
The approved $5.513 billion loans which is to be sourced from multilateral institutions for funding on concessionary terms includes $3.4 billion to be borrowed from International Monetary Fund (IMF), $1.5 billion from World Bank, $500 million from African Development Bank (AfDB) and $133 million from Islamic Development Bank (IDB).

Funding of palliative projects in the states to the tune of $1.5 billion was however not approved by the Senate due to the non-provision of the basic projects to be funded by the loan by government agencies.

The Senate thereafter adjourned plenary till Tuesday, June 9, to enable it to look at the 2020 budget proposal with a view to passing the Appropriation bill.