The House of Representatives in May received a letter from President Muhammadu Buhari seeking approval of his decision to borrow another $5.513bn. However, the Senate on Tuesday approved the $5,513,000,000 external loan request submitted by the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), last week Thursday.
The President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, who read the letter, had instructed the Committee on local and foreign debts to work on the document.
Buhari had mentioned that the loan request will be used to fund the revised 2020 budget following the dwindling oil revenue occasioned by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Local and Foreign Debts, Senator Clifford Ordia, read the report of his panel which was approved by the Senate.
The loan which would be sourced from Multilateral and Bilateral Institutions are $3,400,000,000 from the International Monetary Fund which was proposed to finance the 2020 revised budget deficit.
It also sought $1.5bn from the World Bank, which would also be used to finance the 2020 revised budget deficit
The red chamber is also seeking $500m from the African Development Banks to be utilised for the COVID-19 crises response Budget as well as to support Operation to part-finance the 2020 revised budget deficit
The Federal Government is also seeking $113 million from the Islamic Development Bank to part-finance the 2020 revised budget deficit
The panel noted that the terms and conditions of the loans from each lender were as contained in a duly executed Loan Agreements that would be forwarded to the National Assembly for proper documentation.
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