Buhari Writes National Assembly, Seeks $5.5bn Fresh Loan

President Muhammadu Buhari has forwarded a letter to the Senate seeking for the approval of a fresh $5.5 Billion loan, he noted that the loan wouldn’t be a burden to Nigeria.

Recall that the National Assembly in April approved #850bn loan requested by the President to finance projects in the 2020 budget.

The loan was, however, hindered due to the outbreak of Coronavirus across the world.

The Senate had earlier this year, approved another $22.79bn external loan request for Buhari, which was also meant to fund the total 2020 budget size of N10.5tn.

President Buhari on Thursday forwarded the loan request of $5.5bn to the House of Representatives and the Senate.

The Senate President, Ahmad Lawan and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, read the letters during plenary, on Thursday.

The President in the letter forwarded to the National Assembly noted that the loan would be used to finance the proposed 2020 revised budget, some priority projects and other projects to support state governments.

He said it became imperative for the funding of the revised 2020 budget and insulating the nation’s economy from the yet-to-be-abated COVID-19 pandemic.

The sources for the loans, according to him, are the International Monetary Fund, $3.4bn; World Bank, $1.4bn; Africa Development Bank, $500m; Islamic Development Bank, $113m, among others.

The letter read, “As the Senate may be aware, the COViD-19 pandemic has resulted in economic and fiscal challenges for many countries.”

“Nigeria has also been affected in this regard, especially with the lower demand for crude oil, which has affected our sales and the sharp decline in the price of oil below $25 per barrel, which is much lower than the $57 per barrel benchmark in the 2020 Appropriation Act.”

“The COVlD-19 pandemic has also created the need of additional expenditure in the health sector.”

“All of these have necessitated a review of the 2020 Budget and the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework (2020-2022).”

“The draft revised budget proposed by the executive for 2020 has a higher deficit. In order to finance the deficit, the Federal Government is planning to raise funds from both domestic and external sources.”

“For the external component, the government is negotiating with multilateral institutions for funding on concessionary terms.”

“The facilities totalling $5.513bn, being arranged in this regard, are detailed below.”

Details of the projects were not made available to journalists, but both chambers of the National Assembly had referred the documents to their committees on local and foreign debts.