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President Muhammadu Buhari has asked the National Assembly to approve his administration’s external borrowing plan of $29.96bn for the execution of key programmes and infrastructural projects in the budget from 2016 to 2018.
Buhari made the requests in two separate letters to both the Senate President, Bukola Saraki; and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, which were read to lawmakers in both chambers of the National Assembly during Tuesday’s plenary.
The President, in the external borrowing plan, said the fund would be spent on the provision of infrastructure in agriculture, health, education, water supply, growth and employment generation, and poverty reduction through social safety net programmes, among others.
He said: “The total cost of the projects and programmes under the borrowing (rolling) plan is $29.960bn, made up of proposed projects and programmes’ loan of $11.274bn; special national infrastructure projects, $10.686bn; Eurobonds, $4.5bn; and Federal Government budget support, $3.5bn,” Buhari stated.
The President explained that the loan became necessary due to the serious infrastructural deficit the country was facing.
“Considering the huge infrastructure deficit currently being experienced in the country and the enormous financial resources required to fill the gap in the face of dwindling resources, and the inability of our annual budgetary provisions to bridge the deficit, it has become necessary to resort to prudent external borrowing to bridge the financing gap, which will largely be applied to key infrastructure projects, namely power, railway and roads projects, among others,” he stated.