The Senate on Wednesday approved a loan request of $6.1 billion by President Muhammadu Buhari.
The $6.1 billion which is about N2.343trillion was approved following the consideration of the report of the Senate Committee on Local and Foreign Debts at plenary. Chairman of the committee, Senator Clifford Ordia, presented the report.
TheNewsGuru.com, TNG reports that President Buhari had in May, asked the National Assembly to consider and approve the loan.
The loan, he said, will be raised from multilateral and bilateral lenders as well as the international capital market.
He also disclosed that the National Assembly already approved the borrowing of N4.6 trillion in the 2021 Appropriation Act and that the new borrowing of N2.3 trillion will part-finance the deficit in the 2021 budget.
In his presentation, Senator Ordia said the request is not new as it had already been approved in the borrowing plan when the National Assembly passed the 2021 Appropriation Bill.
“What we are about to pass is not a new borrowing, it has been approved in the 2021 budget,” he said.
After the approval, the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, said the National Assembly must make sure that there are no frivolous expenditures by the executive.
“Let me thank the committee, this is not a new loan. This is a borrowing plan we have approved. What we have done is to provide the necessary resolutions for the implementation of it.
“Every cent counts. Our committees must be alive to oversee it. No frivolous expenditures should be entertained.”
Nigeria’s 2021 budget already has a deficit of N5.6 trillion.
The President had said the loan will be used to fund “projects from priority sectors of the economy namely: power, transportation, agriculture and rural development, education, health, provision of counterpart funding for multilateral and bilateral projects, defence and water resources.”
…Passes N895.842bn Supplementary Budget
Meanwhile, the Senate also passed into law a supplementary budget of N895 billion of which N173 billion is for recurrent expenditure and N722 billion will be for contribution to a development fund for capital expenditure for the year ending 31st December 2021.
This supplementary budget is intended to equip the military in fighting insurgency, covid 19 vaccination, and also funding for the management of HIV.
Its passage comes after a satisfactory report by Senator Jibrin Barau, Senate Committee Chairman on Appropriation, where he explained that the supplementary budget would augment the effort of various government agencies to discharge their responsibilities.
Senator Barau further noted that security agencies will be able to procure arms and equipment as they continue to contain the security threats posed in various regions of the country.
TNG recalls that President Buhari on the 22nd of June transmitted the supplementary budget of N895.8 billion to the Senate for approval.
The president’s request comes about two weeks after the Federal Executive Council approved the budget.
According to the Federal Government, the budget is specifically meant to enhance the capacity of the military and para-military agencies to tackle the various security challenges in the country.
“The total of this expenditure is made up of N83.56 billion for COVID-19 vaccine programme, covering 30 billion vaccines from Johnson and Johnson vaccines and the logistics cost related to the deployment of that vaccine,” the Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed, had said on June 9.
“It also contains the sum of N1.69 billion for the Nigerian Comprehensive AIDS programme currently operating in the States and an additional contingency provision of N40 billion under the public service-wide wage adjustments to take care of the needs for allowances to the health and education sectors and other wage-related issues.”
She said the Council also approved an aggregate sum of N770.60 billion to further enhance the capacity of the defence and security agencies to address current and emerging security challenges in our country.