President Buhari Pleads With NASS for $513bn External Loan Approval

 The President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday requested the National Assembly to consider and approve his request to borrow $5.513 billion from external sources.

Buhari’s letter of request was read by Senate President Ahmad Lawan on the floor during plenary.

The President, in a separate letter, also submitted the revised 2020-2022 Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper (MTEF/FSP) and the 2020 budget respectively for consideration and approval.

In the letter, Buhari said the $5.513 billion external loan is to enable the Federal Government fund the 2020 revised budget, execute Federal Government’s priority projects and for projects to support State Governments in stimulating their economy which has been adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The President said the loan to fund the 2020 revised budget is being expected from multilateral institutions like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) $3.4 billion, World Bank $1.5billion, African Development Bank (AFDB) $500million and the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) $113million.

On Federal Government’s priority projects to address the COVID-19 pandemic and ensure food security in the country, Buhari said the sum of $600million would be sourced from the Islamic Development Bank, $125million from the AfDB, among others.

The Senate President referred the 2020-2022 revised MTEF to the Senate Committee on Finance, while the loan request was referred to the Senate Committee on Foreign and Local Debts for further legislative work and to report back on Tuesday next week.

The Senate also suspended its relevant rules to take a second reading of the revised 2020 Appropriation Bill.