JUST IN: Buhari Writes Senate Over $800m World Bank Loan
Despite opposition, the Muhammad Buhari administration is going ahead with its plan to secure $800 million loan from the World Bank.
President Buhari wrote to the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, on Wednesday, seeking approval of the loan said to be targeted at scaling up the National Social Safety Net Programme.
The president specifically tied the request to the need to provide post-petroleum subsidy palliatives for Nigerians.
“Senate President Ahmad Lawan reads a letter from President Muhammdu Buhari, GCFR, requesting for the approval of additional financing of the National Social Safety Net Programme to the tune of $800 Million to be secured from the World Bank,” the Senate tweeted on Wednesday.
The Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) had earlier kicked against the $800 million loan, saying “If the fuel subsidy removal process has been suspended as announced by the Minister of Finance after the NEC meeting at the end of April, then the government should return the borrowed money because what are we taking the loan for?
“In 2022, Nigeria paid about N7 trillion in fuel subsidy and in 2023 from January to June when the country intends to stop paying the subsidy is N3.6 trillion so if we are paying such whopping amount of money when subsidy is removed, we should have enough savings instead of taking additional loans, we can use the subsidy funds for post fuel subsidy removal.
“As a matter of fact, we don’t need to borrow. What we need to do is to cut waste. Just recently, we all saw the aviation minister announced that he bought 10 firefighting trucks for over 12 billion naira. Is this what we are borrowing to spend on?
“Also, we read that the Minister of Communication and Digital Economy announced the approval of 24.2 billion to provide internet facilities at airports and some institutions amongst other places. These are the things we are spending on few weeks before the end of this administration and this is unacceptable.”
The CISLAC boss also condemned unnecessary spendings with few weeks of the Buhari-led administration, and described it as reckless spending.