Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has sent a request to the country’s National Assembly to approve the borrowing of at least 29.960 billion dollars from external sources to fund key infrastructure projects between 2016 and 2018 in the West African nation reports Vanguard.
Buhari sent letters to the Senate and the House of Representative to approve which read ” The total cost of the projects and programmes under the borrowing (rolling) plan is $29.960 billion, made up of proposed projects and programmes loan of $11.274 billion, Special National Infrastructure projects $10.686 billion, Euro bonds of $4.5 billion and Federal Government budget support of $3.5billion. “
According to President Buhari the external borrowing plan would be targeted at projects which cut across all sectors, with special emphasis on infrastructure, agriculture, health, education, water supply, among others.
A serous infrastructure problem in the face of declining resources coupled by lack of the annual budget to meet all provisions has made it necessary for the government to resort to borrowing money to finance the projects.
The President also requested for the transfer of at least 574 million dollars in the 2016 budget appropriated for Special Intervention Programme to enable the government to finance other key projects.
