President Muhammadu Buhari on
Thursday forwarded a request to the Senate to reconsider and approve the
federal government’s 2016 to 2018 external borrowing plan.
The loan, he said, is to finance
key infrastructural projects across the country between 2016 and 2018.
His message was conveyed in a
letter which was read out by the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, at the start of
plenary.
The president had sent the same
request to the eighth Senate in 2016. He had requested for about $30 billion.
The lawmakers however, rejected
the request as majority voted against the request when it was brought for
consideration.
Although, Mr Buhari did not state
the amount to be borrowed in his latest letter, he explained that the external
borrowing plan targets projects across all sectors with special emphasis on
infrastructure, agriculture, health, education, water supply, growth and
employment generation.
According to the letter, the
request is pursuant to Sections 21 and 27 of the Debt Management Office
Establishment Etc, Act.
The president in his letter noted
that while he transmitted the 2016-2018 external borrowing plan to the eighth
National Assembly in September 2016, the plan was not approved in its entirety
by the legislature.
“Only the federal government’s emergency
projects for the North East’s four states projects and one China Exim assistant
railway modernisation projects for Lagos-Ibadan segment were approved out of
the total of 39 projects,” he said.
“Outstanding projects in the plan
that were not approved by the legislature are nevertheless, critical to the
delivery of the government’s policies and programmes relating to power, mining,
roads, agriculture, health, water and educational sectors.
“These outstanding budgets are
well-advanced in terms the preparation, consistent with the 2016 debt
sustainability analysis undertaken by the Debt Management Office and were
approved by the federal executive council in August 2016 under the 2016-2018
external borrowing plan,” he said.
He added that he has directed the
Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed, to make herself available to provide any
additional information or clarification which the Senate will require to
facilitate prompt approval of the outstanding projects under this plan.
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