Senate clarifies N850bn loan approval
The Senate has clarified that Tuesday’s approval of the N850 billion loan request from President Muhammadu Buhari was not for a fresh loan intake as widely reported in the media.
Rather, the Senate said the resolution was meant to amend ealier approval to the request regarding how to source the money partly to be used in funding the 2020 budget.
Chairman, Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Senator Ajibola Basiru in a statement Thursday in Abuja, said it is very important to make a clarification on the “widely circulated erroneous report that the Senate approved a fresh loan of N850 billion at plenary on Tuesday.
“The resolution passed was an amendment of the earlier resolution as to the source of the initial N850bn loan that had been approved to be part of what should be used to fund the 2020 Appropriation Act.”
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He recalled that the Senate had actually approved the loan of N850 billion but to be sourced from external sources.
“However, because of the COVID-19 pandemic and of the challenge in the international oil market with the attendant challenges of raising the approved loan externally, the President requested that the approved loan should rather be raised through the domestic capital market.
“It was the above request as to sourcing the earlier approved external borrowing of N850bn from fomestic capital market that was approved by the Senate,” the senator explained.
