President Muhammadu Buhari has presented a letter to the National Assembly, seeking approval for an external borrowing of $29.960bilion in the 2016 -2018borrowinng plan.
According to the letter, the borrowing is meant to address the huge infrastructural deficit in the country.
”Considering the huge infrastructure deficit currently being experienced in the Country and the enormous financial resources required to fill the gap in the face of dwindling resourced and the inability of our annual budgetary provisions to bridge the infrastructural deficit, it has become necessary to resort to prudent external borrowing to bridge the financial gap which will largely be applied to key infrastructure projects namely: power, railway and roads project among others,” he said.
Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara who read the President’s letter at the resumption of plenary yesterday, said the plan would be discussed on tomorrow (Thursday) when members would have studies the President’s letter.
The proposed borrowing include Projects and Programmes loan of $11.274billion, $10.686billion forSpecial National Infrastructure Projects ,$4.5billlion Euro Bonds and $3.5billion as Federal Government Budget Support.
“The total cost of the projects and programmes under the Borrowing (Rolling) Plan is $29.960bilion made up of Proposed Projects and Programmes loan of $11.274billion Special National Infrastructure Projects $10.686billion Euro Bonds of $4.5billlion and Federal Government Budget Support of $3.5billion,” he said.
The letter also stated that $575million would bbe earmarked for various projects in the North East.
“Honourable Members may also wish to know that with the current relative peace and stability in the North East, it has become extremely urgent to start reconstruction and rehabilitation of the region in order to create jobs for the people and rehabilitate the schools to get the children off the streets and into schools. The World Bank has also provided a sum of $450million to assist the FGN in this reconstruction and rehabilitation efforts.”
“The recent outbreak of polio in the North East is a matter of concern, especially following the recent delisting of Nigeria from the list of polio endemic countries. This therefore calls for urgent and immediate action to stem the tide of the outbreak.
The World Bank has approved a loan in the sum of $125million to the FGN to procure vaccines and other ancillary to stop and eventually eliminate the outbreak.”
”$125 millions for Polio Eradication Support and routine immunization Project, $75million for Community and Social Development Project, $125 million for Nigeria States Health Programme Investment Project $ 100 million for State Education Programme Investment Project, another $100million for Nigeria Youth Employment and Social Support Project, and $150 for Fadama III Project.”
President Buhari stated further that the borrowing is key to ensuring prompt implementation of of in various sectors, selected based on technical economic evaluation.
”I would like to underscore the fact that the projects and programmes in the Borrowing Plan were selected based on positive technical economic evaluations as well as the contribution they would make to the socio-economic development of the country including employment generation and poverty reduction and protection of the most vulnerable and very poor segment of the Nigerian society. The projects and programmes will be implemented in all the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory,”the president said.
“I wish to refer to the above subject and to submit the attached draft of Federal Government 2016-2018 External Borrowing (Rolling) Plan for consideration and early approval by the National Assembly to ensure prompt implementation of the project.”
“The project cut across all sectors with special emphasis on Infrastructure, Agriculture, Health, Education, Water Supply, Growth and Employment Generation, Poverty Reduction through Social Safety Net programmes and Governance and Financial Management Reforms among others. “
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