Senate Names Eight Ministries Delaying Approval of $22 96bn Loan

Senate Names Eight Ministries Delaying Approval of $22 96bn Loan

Chuks Okocha and Deji Elumoye in Abuja

Senate wednesday directed the Federal Ministries of Education, Power, Niger Delta, Humanitarian Services, Water Resources, Health, Communications and Agriculture to make haste to appear before the Senate Committee on Foreign and Local Loans to enable the Upper Chamber approve the federal government $22.96 billion borrowing plan.

The advisory was sequel to the complaint by the Chairman of the committee, Clifford Ordia, that the above-mentioned federal ministries have refused to appear after several invitations .

He, therefore, requested the Senate to grant the committee extra two weeks to enable it consider the federal government loan request

In his response, the Senate President, Dr. Ahmad Lawan, advised the affected ministries to appear before the Senate Committee within the next 14 days to enable the Senate dispense with the government’s borrowing plan.

Meanwhile, the federal government had sought the approval of the Senate for concessionary external borrowing of $22.8 billion for the development of infrastructures across the country.

Minister of Finance and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, made the presentation on behalf of the federal government when she appeared before Senate Committee on Local and Foreign Debts.

Ahmed said the loan sought was segmented into seven concessionary loans from multilateral institutions.

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