BREAKING: Uproar as Senate approves Buhari’s $22.7bn loan request

[Edoman]

BREAKING: Uproar as Senate approves Buhari’s $22.7bn loan request
March 5, 2020
 
in Featured, News Update

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The Senate on Wednesday approved President Muhammadu Buhari’s $22,798,446,773.00 external loan request.

Buhari had requested for the loan to fund critical infrastructure projects under the 2016 – 2018 External Borrowing Plan.

The process of approving the loan by Senators however led to vehement disagreements in the upper chamber.

While some Senators supported the approval, others kicked against it.

Efforts were earlier made bY Senator Adamu Aliero (Kebbi Central) to postpone the consideration of the report to another legislative day.

However, the President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, said that such a postponement would be counterproductive as the findings and recommendations of the report would have already been debated in the media before the consideration.

He advised that the report be considered to forestall such an eventuality.

The Chairman Senate Committee on Senate Committee on Local and Foreign Debts, Senator Clifford Ordia (Edo Central) presented the report.

As Lawan moved to subject the two recommendations in the report to vote and approval, the Minority Leader, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe raised a point of order.

Abaribe said that it would be necessary to subject the various components of the loan to voting, especially the amounts and the lending countries.

Lawan disagreed with him and said that the Senate would only vote on the two recommendations contained in the report.

Abaribe said: “We are going to pass a loan of $22.7billion for which we are being denied the privilege to express our reservations. You are putting us in a very impossible position.

“There are some aspect of this loan that we object to. I want to ask on behalf of our colleagues here that we take these items one by one and vote on them.”

Lawan in his response said: “You (Minority Leader) have not been denied of your privilege.

“I don’t want the discussion on this loan to degenerate into partisanship. My action was was not an attempt to muscle you.”

“I want to quote one popular saying that he who goes a borrowing, goes a sorrowing,” Abaribe replied.

At this point, Senator Gabriel Suswam said that he also had some objections and information on an aspect of the loan that relates to power projects in the report which he did not want to raise in the open chamber.

He urged the Senate President to allow the Senate to go into an executive session for 10 minutes to resolve the issues.

“There are contentious issues in this report. I want to appeal that we go into an executive session for 10 minutes after that we can conclude proceedings on this report,” Suswam said.

Even though Lawan earlier kicked against the suggestion for the Senate to go into an executive session, he later accepted it following apparent interventions by Senators.

The Senate after the closed door session, which lasted for about 30 minutes, approved the two recommendations in the report.

Details shortly…

[Edoman]

Buhari’s $22.7 Billion Loan Spending Plan: $1.25bn For Abuja Rail, $500m For NTA 


The senate has approved President Muhammadu Buhari’s $22.7 billion loan request — years after it was rejected by the previous assembly.

At its plenary session on Thursday, the upper legislative chamber approved the 2016-2018 external borrowing plan which the president said would be used for critical projects across the country.

TheCable understands Nigeria’s public debt profile stands at N26.215 trillion as of September 2019.

According to a document accompanying the president’s request, the fresh loan is for about 35 projects, many of which are infrastructural.

The document which was obtained by TheCable, also shows a part of the money will be used for new projects while others will go into already existing projects.

WHERE WILL THE LOAN COME FROM?

Over 70 percent of the loan will come from the Exim Bank of China, while the remaining funds will come from the World Bank, Africa Development Bank among others.

Here are the institutions the loan is being requested:

Exim Bank of China ($17bn)
World Bank ($2.95bn)
Africa Development Bank ($1.88bn)
Islamic Development Bank ($110m)
Japan International Cooperation Agency ($200m).
German Development Bank ($20m)
French Development Agency ($480m

THE SPENDING PLAN

Here is how the Buhari administration plans to spend the loan and where the projects are located as contained in the document:

INFRASTRUCTURE
– Emergency road rehabilitation and maintenance ($434.7m, nationwide)
– Abidjan-Lagos corridor highway development project study ($1.5m; multinational) – Abuja mass rail transit project (phase 2) ($1.25bn; FCT)
– East-west road ($800m; Niger Delta)
– Nigeria Housing Finance Project Guarantee Scheme ($100m; national)
– Lagos-Kano railway modernisation project (Ibadan-Kano segment double track) ($5.53bn; Ibadan-Kano states)
– Railway modernisation coastal railway project (Calabar-Port Harcourt-Onne deep sea port segment ($3.47bn; Cross River and Rivers states)

SOCIAL INVESTMENT
– National Social Safety Net Project ($500m, nationwide)
– Multi-sectoral crises recovery programme ($200m, north-east)
– North-east Nigeria integrated social protection, basic health, education, nutrition services and livelihood restoration project ($100m; north-east)

POWER
– Power transmission project ($200m; Lagos, Ogun)
– Vocational training in power sector ($50m; FCT, Lagos, Ogun. Kano, Plateau, Niger, Enugu, Kaduna and Cross River)
– TCN overall transportation system enhancement project ($200m; nationwide)
– Mambila hydro-electric power project ($4.8bn; Taraba)
– Nigeria Electricity Transmission and Access Project ($364m; nationwide)

EDUCATION
– Better Education Service Delivery for All (BESDA) ($500m, nationwide)

ECONOMY
– Development finance project ($500m, nationwide)
– Kaduna state economic transformation program for results ($35m, Kaduna)
– Development finance project (2) ($450m, min. of power)
– Development finance project (3) ($20m, nationwide)
– MSMEs project ($1.28bn; nationwide)

COMMUNICATION
– NTA digitisation project ($500m; nationwide)
– National Information and Communication Technology Infrastructural Backbone Project (NICTIB) phase II ($328.1m; Lagos, Abuja, Ibadan, Akure, Maiduguri, Lokoja, Kaduna, Akwanga, Bauchi, Kano, Katsina)

AGRICULTURE
– Staple crops processing zone support project ($100m, Kogi)
– Agriculture Transformation Agenda Support Project II (ATASP) ($200m, nationwide)
– Staple crops processing zone projects (2) (500m; nationwide)

HEALTH/WATER
– Regional disease surveillance systems enhancement project in West Africa ($90m, nationwide)
– Health System Project ($110m, Katsina)
– Rural water supply and sanitation ($150m; north-east, and Plateau)
– Greater Abuja water supply project ($381m; FCT)

GOVERNANCE
– Fiscal Governance and Institutions Project (FGIP) ($200m, government institutions)
– Institutional strengthening and implementation of policy reforms ($33.7m, min. of works and housing)

ENVIRONMENT
– Lake Chad Basin Commission ($13m, multinational)
– Integrated programme for development and adaption to climate change in the Niger Basin ($6m; Nigeria and Niger)
– Development of the mining industry ($150m, nationwide)

https://www.thecable.ng/in-full-1-25bn-for-abuja-rail-500m-for-nta-buharis-22-7bn-loan-spending-plan/amp