Senate gives accelerated approval to Buhari’s fresh N850bn loan request
- The Nigerian Senate has reportedly resolved to grant President Buhari's fresh loan request an accelerated approval
- President Buhari is seeking approval of N850 billion from the domestic capital market to fund projects in the 2020 budget
- The Senate has also mandated it’s Finance and Appropriation Committees to liaise with the minister of finance to obtain more details of the loan request
The Senate has resolved to give accelerated approval to President Muhammadu Buhari’s request to raise a fresh loan of N850 billion from the domestic capital market to fund projects in the 2020 budget.
The Nation reports that President Buhari's request was contained in a presidential memo read by the president of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, on the floor of the Senate on Tuesday, April 28.
After the letter was read, the lawmakers gave accelerated approval to the president’s request to raise the loan.
Source: UGC
The upper chamber also mandated it’s Finance and Appropriation Committees to liaise with the minister of finance, budget and national planning, Zainab Ahmed, to obtain more details of the loan request.
Legit.ng notes that President Buhari’s loan request was granted accelerated approval following the senators’ resumption from a recess which lasted about five weeks due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The lawmakers had gone on break since March as part of measures to curb the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19) in the country.
Channels TV reports that at the resumed plenary, the Senate president welcomed his colleagues and gave the reason for the resumption of plenary amid the rising cases of COVID-19 in the country.
Lawan explained that the decision was to help sustain solutions to the health crisis and ensure the crisis does not create more problems for the government and its people.
He further stated that the pandemic has affected the 2020 budget and the National Assembly has a responsibility to work with the executive to address the problem.
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Legit.ng earlier reported that the federal government was forced to slash the 2020 budget by N312 billion following the crash of crude oil prices in the global market due to coronavirus.
The 2020 budget has now been cut from the initial N10, 594, 362,364,80 to N10,276, 887,197,728.
However, the decision by the executive arm of the government is subject to the approval of the legislature.
The proposal by President Buhari seeks to cut in the oil benchmark from $57 per barrel to $30 per barrel and reduce the daily production of oil from 2.8 million per barrel to 1.70 million.
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Source: Legit.ng
