Nigeria To Borrow More As Senate Approves Buhari’s $16bn, €1bn Loan Requests

The Senate on Wednesday approved President Muhammadu Buhari’s External Borrowing (Rolling) plan for the Federal Government to the tune of $16,230,077,718, €1,020,000,000.

The Senate also approved a grant component of $125,000,000.00 under the 2018-2020 External Borrowing (Rolling) plan for the Federal Government.

The approval was sequel to the consideration of the report of the Senate Committee on Local and Foreign Debts.

The report was presented by the Chairman of the Committee, Senator Clifford Ordia, PDP, Edo Central during the plenary.

The recommendation of the Committee reads, “That the Senate does approve the underlisted ongoing negotiation of external borrowing in the sum of $16,230,077,718, €1,020,000,000.00 and a grant component of $125,000,000.00 under the 2018-2020 External Borrowing (Rolling) Plan.”

The recommendation was approved by Senators when it was put to a voice vote by Senate President Ahmad Lawan at plenary.

President Buhari and the Minister of Finance, Mrs Zainab Ahmed had at various times been criticize on the country’s rising debt levels which the Debt Management Office said is N87.2trn or $33.1bn as of March 2021.
In the N16.39trn 2022 budget appropriation presented by the President, the deficit was put at N6.26trn and it’s to be financed through borrowing of N5.01 trn.

Nigeria’s debt service to GDP ratio had hit 73 per cent based on figures released by the Finance Minister earlier last month.