The Senate has approved the $8.3 billion (N8,325,536,537) loan request by President Muhammadu Buhari.
They lawmakers also approved a separate €490 million loan request by the president.
The total amount is part of the 2018 – 2020 external borrowing (rolling) plan of the federal government.
The fund was approved on Thursday after the Senate considered the report of the Senate Committee on Local and Foreign Debts.
Chairman of the committee, Clifford Ordia, presented the report.
President Muhammadu Buhari had in May, asked the National Assembly to approve the loan.
The approval of the loan, he said, would enable projects listed under the 2018-2020 External Borrowing Plan to be financed through sovereign loans from the World Bank, African Development Bank (AfDB), French Development Agency (AFD), Islamic Development Bank, China EXIMBank, China Development Bank, European Investment Bank, European ECA, KfW, lPEX, AFC, India EximBank and International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).
In his presentation, Mr Ordia noted that the projects are geared towards the realisation of the Nigerian Economic Sustainability Plan that cut across key sectors such as Infrastructure, Health, Agriculture and Food Security, Energy, Education and Human Capital Development and COVID 19 Response efforts in the six geo-political zones of the country.
The funding agencies are:
World Bank – $796 million
China EXIMBank – $2.9 billion
Industrial Commercial Bank of China – $2.4 billion.
African Development Bank (AfDB) – $104 million.
Africa Growing Together Bank – $20 million
French Development Agency (AFD) – €240 million
European Investment Bank – €250 million
European ECA, KfW, lPEX, AFC – $1.95 billion
International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) – $60 million
The Senate adopted the committee’s report and approved the loan thereafter.