Senate Approves New N850bn Loan for President Buhari

• Senate Approves New N850bn Loan for President Buhari

The new loan request submitted by President Muhammadu Buhari to the Senate on Tuesday received instant approval, according to Channelstv.

The Senate President, Ahmed Lawan, had read a letter from President Buhari requesting the upper chamber for approval to raise N850 billion from the domestic capital market.

Buhari had said the amount will be used to finance part of the projects stipulated in the 2020 budget.

The floor immediately gave instant approval to the presidential request to raise another loan.

After the approval, the Senate asked “Committees on Finance and Appropriation to liaise with the Minister of Finance, Budget, and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, to get more details on the loan request,” Channelstv stated.

JPMorgan and other global experts have said Nigeria’s rising debt cost amidst rising loan remains the bane of the nation’s slow economic recovery and predicted to further worsen its fiscal space as it grapples with the negative impact of COVID-19.

The nation’s debt to revenue ratio rose to 48 percent after the 2020 budget was revised down due to coronavirus pandemic that plunged oil prices and eroded revenue generation. Indicating that most of the nation’s revenue will go towards debt servicing and repayment in 2020.

Nigeria’s total debt rose to N27.4 trillion as of December 2019, according to the Debt Management Office.  While the nation spent N2.1 trillion or about 30 percent of the revised 2020 budget on debt servicing in 2019, the Accountant General of the Federation stated in a recent report released in April.