The House of Representatives has approved a $516 million external loan request by President Bola Tinubu to fund sections of the Sokoto-Badagry Superhighway project.
The approval followed the presentation of a report by Abdullahi Rasheed, deputy chairman of the House Committee on Aids, Loans and Debts Management, during plenary in Abuja.
President Tinubu had sought the National Assembly’s approval to secure the syndicated loan from Deutsche Bank AG for the proposed highway.
The loan will fund Sections 1, 1A, and 1B of the superhighway, covering approximately 120 kilometres in the first phase of the project.
The broader highway spans about 1,000 kilometres and is designed to link Sokoto, Kebbi, Niger, Kwara, Oyo, Ogun, and Lagos states.
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The facility has a tenure of nine years, including a three-year grace period, and carries an interest rate pegged at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange SOFR plus 5.3 per cent per annum.
Senate President Godswill Akpabio defended the borrowing plan, stating that it is better to borrow for infrastructure so that repayment can come from the infrastructure itself.
The loan is backed by a partial risk guarantee from the Islamic Corporation for the Insurance of Investment and Export Credit.
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The Federal Government is expected to provide over N265 billion in counterpart funding for land acquisition, compensation, and related infrastructure costs.
Debt service rose to about N16 trillion in 2025, up 22.9 per cent from N13.02 trillion in 2024, according to the Debt Management Office.
The borrowing plan has drawn mixed reactions, with critics questioning the government’s fiscal discipline and warning about poorly structured loans.
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