In a letter read out by Senate President Ahmad Lawan, at the start of plenary on Tuesday, President Muhammadu Buhari is seeking the approval of the National Assembly to borrow another $4 billion ($4,054,476,863) and €710 million loans from bilateral and multilateral organizations to fund the deficit in the 2021 budget.
He also asked the lawmakers to approve grant components of $125 million.
The president explained that the need to borrow more funds is to meet the “emerging needs” of some “critical projects.”
This request comes barely two months after the National Assembly approved President Buhari’s earlier request to borrow $8.3 billion and €490 million loans contained in the initial 2018-2020 borrowing plan, according to a report in the PREMIUM TIMES newspaper.
The lawmakers had said the earlier loans were meant for projects geared towards the realization of the Nigerian Economic Sustainability Plan that cut across key sectors such as infrastructure, health, agriculture, and food security, energy, COVID-19, among others.
