Tinubu seeks Senate approval for $8.6bn external borrowing plan

President Bola Tinubu has sought the approval of the Senate for 2023-2024 external borrowing plan of 8.6 billion dollars and 100 million euros.

This is contained in a letter addressed to President of Senate, Godswill Akpiabio, and read at plenary on Tuesday.

Mr Tinubu said the request for the borrowings were earlier contained in the 2022 to 2024 External borrowing plans approved by the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari at the Federal Executive Council on May 15.

He said that it had become imperative that the Federal Government resort to prudent external borrowing to breach the financial gap.

He said the fund would be used to execute key infrastructure projects including power, railway, health among others.

“The projects cut across all sectors with specific emphasis on infrastructure, agriculture, health, education, water supply, security, employment generation amongst others, ” he said.

He said following the removal of fuel subsidy and its attendant impact on the economy, the African Development Bank(AFDB) and the World Bank Group have indicated interest to assist Nigeria mitigate the impact.

He said the projects and programmes in the borrowing plan were selected based on positive technical economic evaluation and its expected contribution to the social economic development of the country.

He also listed employment generation, skills acquisition, support towards emergence of entrepreneurs , poverty eduction and food security to improve the livelihood of Nigerian’s as reasons for the facility.

Mr Akpiabio mandated the Senate Committee on Local and Foreign Debt to look at the letter for further legislative work and report back in one week.