President Buhari requests more external loans

President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday sent a letter to the Senate, seeking its approval for additional external loans in addition to 2018 to 2021 borrowing plan.

This latest request by President Buhari was contained in a letter addressed to President of Senate Ahmad Lawan and read at plenary on Tuesday.

The letter explained that the loan would be sourced from multilateral organisations such as World Bank, French Development Agency, China Exim Bank, amongst others in order to finance critical projects of the Federal and States governments.

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The letter reads, “Addendum to the Request for Senate concurrent approval of Multilateral Fund Projects under the 2018 to 2021 Federal Government external borrowing plan.

“I write to the above subject to submit an attached addendum to the proposed 2018 to 2021 Federal Government external borrowing rolling plan for the consideration and concurrent approval of the Senate.

“Senate may wish to recall that I had earlier transmitted a request from the proposed 2018 to 2020 Federal Government external borrowing plan for the concurrent approval of Senate in May 2021.

“However, in view of other emerging needs and to ensure that all critical projects are covered, the Federal Executive Council as at June 2021 incorporated.

“I hereby forward an addendum to the proposed external borrowing plan.

“The projects listed in the addendum to the 2018 to 2021 Federal Government external borrowing plan are to be financed through sovereign loans from the World Bank, French Development Agency, China Exim Bank.

“Other project are International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD), Credit Swiss Group, and Standard Chartered, in the credit total sum of 4.5 billion dollars,710 million euros and grant component of 125 million dollars.

“The Senate is kindly invited to know that the projects and programs in the borrowing plan was selected based on positive technical and economic evaluations and the contributions that will make the socio-economic development of the country.

“All the said projects in the addendum, form part of the 2018-2021 external borrowing plan and covered all the Federal and states government projects and are geared toward realisation of Nigeria sustainability plan.”

President Buhari implored the lawmakers to ensure speedy approval of the request in order to ensure the implementation of various projects across the country.