THE Nigerian Senate has approved the Federal Government’s 2018-2020 external borrowing rolling plan of $8.3 billion and €490 million.
The approval was given on the floor of the Red Chamber during Thursday’s plenary
President Muhammadu Buhari had written to the National Assembly in May seeking the approval of the plan.
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According to the president, the loan would be sourced from multilateral and bilateral institutions and the issuance of Eurobonds in the international capital market.
Donor funded projects under the plan, according to the president, would be financed through sovereign loans from the World Bank, African Development Bank (AfDB), Islamic Development Bank, French Development Agency, and the China EXIM Bank.
Others included: the China Development Bank, European Investment Bank, European ECA, KfW, IPEX, AFC, India EXIM Bank and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).
The president noted further that the projects and programmes in the borrowing plan were selected based on the technical and economic evaluation that would promote employment generation, social protection and poverty reduction.
Also, the listed projects were geared towards the realisation of Nigeria’s Economic Sustainability Plan cutting across key sectors such as infrastructure, health, agriculture and food security, energy, education, human capital development and the COVID-19 response initiatives.
According to the Debt Management Office (DMO), Nigeria’s total public debt as at March 31, 2021, was N33.107 trillion.
The DMO said the total public debt stock comprised the debt stock of the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN), 36 state governments and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
The debt stock also included promissory notes in the sum of N940.220 billion issued to settle the inherited arrears of the Federal Government to state governments, oil marketing companies, exporters and local contractors.
The report said that compared to the total public debt stock of N32.916 trillion as at December 31, 2020, a marginal increase of 0.58 per cent was recorded in the debt stock.
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