THE Senate has approved the request by President Muhammadu Buhari to approve federal government’s plan to secure two external borrowings totalling $5.5bn.

The approval followed the adoption of a report by the Senate Committee on Local and Foreign Debts at the plenary on Tuesday, November 14.

The president, had in a letter dated October 4, 2017, said that the external borrowings had been captured in the 2017 Appropriation Act, which has a deficit of N2.356tn and provision for new borrowings of N2.321tn.

The letter said in part: “Accordingly, the Senate is requested to  kindly approve the following external borrowings: Issuance of $2.5bn  in International Capital Market through Eurobonds or a combination of Eurobonds and Diaspora bonds for the financing of the Federal  Government of Nigeria’s 2017 Appropriation Act and capital expenditure projects in the Act.

“Issuance of Eurobond in the ICM and/or loans syndication by the banks  in the sum of $3bn for refinancing of maturing domestic debts  obligations of the Federal Government of Nigeria, while looking forward to the timely approval of the National Assembly to enable  Nigerians to take advantage of this  opportunities for funding.”

– Nov 14, 2017 @ 12:37 GMT |