President Muhammadu Buhari has written the Senate, seeking the approval to go for another external loan to the tune of $6,18 billion.
The President is also seeking the permission of the National Assembly to approve a list of all donor-funded projects under the 2018-2020 Federal Government External Borrowing Plan.
The President’s request is contained in two separate letters addressed to the Speaker of the House of Representatives dated 6th, May 2021 respectively and read on the floor of the House by Deputy Speaker, Ahmed Idris Wase at the resumption of plenary.
According to the letter, proceeds of the New External Borrowing in the 2021 Appropriation Act) will be used to fund specific Capital Projects in the Budget.
This includes projects from priority sectors of the economy like Power, Transportation, Agriculture and Rural Development, Education, Health, provision of Counterpart Funding for Multilateral and Bilateral Projects, Defence and Water Resources.
The letter added that the projects and programmes in the Borrowing Plan were selected based on positive, technical and economic evaluations as well as the contribution they would make to the socio-economic development of the country including employment generation and poverty reduction as well as protection of the most vulnerable and very poor segments of the Nigerian society
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