Again, Buhari Seeks Senate Approval Of $6.9b Loan

Buhari, in a letter titled, “Request for approval for Federal Government 2016-2018 external borrowing rolling plan”, said $5.8bn would be borrowed from the Chinese Exim bank to modernise the rail network.

According to the letter, another $1.075 billion will be borrowed from the World Bank to rebuild the insurgency war-torn northeast and social security program of his administration.

Some of the listed rail projects include, 1. Lagos-Kano railway modernisation project, the Lagos-Ibadan segment, $1.231billion; 2. Lagos-Kano railway modernisation project, Kano-Kaduna segment, $1.146billion; 3. Coastal Railway project, Lagos-Calabar segment $3.474billion; making a total of $5.851billion.

The request was read by Senate President, Abubakar Bukola Saraki during plenary Wednesday.

The memo read in part, “I wish to refer to my earlier letter in respect of the above subject and to inform the distinguished Senate that the China-Exim Bank has approved our request for a loan to execute the Lagos-Kano Railway modernisation project (Kano-Kaduna segment) for a sum of $1.231billion.

“The Chinese have also informed us that approval of the Lagos-Kano railway modernisation project (Kano-Kaduna segment) and coastal Railway project, Lagos-Calabar segment, are imminent.

“As you are aware, the funds available under the China/Africa fund are limited and loan applications from all African countries are funded based on first come first serve. And therefore there is an urgent need for us to sign these loans as soon as they are approved or we will lose out in the event that we delay in signing the loan agreement. These loans form part of our overall rail funding strategy.

“We are already in the process of completing the concession of the Port Harcourt to Maiduguri line to immediately link the eastern part of the nation. “We fully intend to source further consessioning funding to ultimately upgrade this critical line to high speed standard guage line. These projects form part of our overall plans to resuscitate the rail transport across the nation and thereby drive inclusive growth.

“You may also recall my earlier request for the speedy clearance of some emergency projects earmarked for the North East in the 2016-2018 borrowing plan. You will also recall that my request was based on the need to consolidate the relative peace at that time. Since then the situation as you are aware, has changed dramatically and introduced even more urgency to the situation in the zone than ever before.

“While the capture and destruction of the stronghold of Boko Haram in Sambisa forest was welcome news, the recent and unfortunate incident of the bombing of an IDP camp by mistake with loss of civilian lives, brings to fore the need to resettle the people back to their homes quickly in other to avoid such incidence in the future.

“However, for us to be able to do this, there is need for urgent consideration of the identified projects, which will enable us to start reconstruction and rehabilitation of the region in other to create jobs for the people and rehabilitate the schools to get the children of the streets into schools.”

The letter said that the World Bank has approved a sum of $575million to assist the Federal Government in these reconstruction and rehabilitation efforts as well as for the procurement of vaccines and other ancillary facilities for national routine immunisation to eradicate polio after the outbreak in the North East in 2016.

“Given the current state of our economy, we need to urgently address some of our infrastructure deficiencies in order to quicken the livelihood of our people.

“It has become imperative that we work together in an expeditious way out of recession and back to growth,” the letter added.

President Buhari however did not state if the request for the approval of the loan was part of the $29.96 billion loan rejected by the Senate in 2016.