House Approves Buhari’s N850bn Loan Request

House Approves Buhari’s N850bn Loan Request

By Udora Orizu

The House of Representatives at the resumption of plenary Tuesday approved the request by President Muhammadu Buhari to source for N850 billion from domestic capital market to finance projects and programmes in the 2020 budget.

The Senate had recently during plenary, suspended its standing rules and gave an accelerated approval for the loan.

President Buhari, had in a letter to the House on Tuesday, May 5, requested the loan which had already been approved in the 2020 Appropriation Act to be converted from external borrowing to local borrowing.

The House Committee on Supply, following the consideration of its report submitted by the Committee Chairman, Hon. Garba Alhassan Ado, approved the request by the president.

Speaking on the report, Ado explained that the loan was not a new request, rather to convert an existing request from foreign sources to local sources.

He said: “This item is already captured in the 2020 Act. It was provided in the budget. All they want is to take the facilities from local sources. During the leadership interface with the Finance Minister, we were assured that the rate will be favourable, and the request was agreed at the leadership meeting.”

The approval was speedily given by the Green Chamber in a few minutes.

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