We Passed Buhari’s $5.5 Billion Loan Request To Save 20 Million Jobs

3 years ago

We Passed Buhari’s $5.5 Billion Loan Request To Save 20 Million Jobs

The passage of the $5.513 billion loan request by President Muhammadu Buhari will save 20 million jobs, President of the Senate Ahmed Lawan said at the weekend.

Dr. Lawan explained that the national Assembly did not give frivolous approval.

He said Nigeria was able to get concessionary, multilateral or bilateral loans with very favourable conditions of one per cent, 10 years or 20 year moratorium.

He also claimed that over 400 bills are being processed in the national assembly to add value to Nigerians’ lives.

He said there has been less friction between the Legislature and the Executive because a Special Committee is working behind-the-scene to avert feuds as it was between the two arms during the Eighth Assembly.

Lawan said:

“We are not doing that in a frivolous way. We are very mindful, we are very patriotic on the way and manner we grant or endorse these requests and we are also very meticulous. Our Committees on Foreign and Domestic Loans have gone through all the papers to ensure that there is justification for those loans. And in fact, in the Senate, we didn’t pass all the loan requests.

“We passed only the request for $5.513b. There was $1.5b request for states. We could not see the justification and we said no. So, it was not everything that was requested that was granted by the Senate.

“I want to assure Nigerians that we would always be guided by the need for our country to be prudent; by the need for our government to be prudent and efficient in the deployment of resources. And of course in the process, we should also explore other means of funding our projects like the partnership with the private sector. All we need to do is to create the environment for the private sector to participate.”

Lawan explained that the loans were necessary to complete important infrastructural projects.

He said:

“Well, we have a shortfall of almost $14.2b funding gap for 2020 Budget. And with COVID-19, came so many negative things that have visited adverse outcomes on our people. We didn’t make hay while the sun shone when we had our crude selling for over $140 per barrel in the past.

“We didn’t diversify the economy, we didn’t invest in the real sectors of the economy and most of the resources were frittered.

Now, we have come to a point where we have to address the infrastructure gap that we have but the resources are so low. Crude at one point was selling for $10 and $11 per barrel, especially when this COVID-19 thing started around March.

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