Why FG Plans To Borrow $29.96 billion – Finance Minister

3 Min Read
Kemi Adeosun

The Federal Government says that within the next three years, it plans to borrow $29.96 billion from the World Bank, African Development Bank, and Japan International Co-operation Agency (JICA).

The other international financial agencies it plans to borrow the money from are Islamic Development Bank (IDB) and China EximBank.

The Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun gave details of the loan in Abuja on Thursday in a statement by her Special Adviser, Mr Festus Akanbi.

It will be recalled that President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday forwarded a request to the National Assembly to approve external borrowing plan of 29.96 billion dollars to execute key infrastructure across the country between 2016 and 2018.

Buhari said the borrowings will target projects across all sectors with special emphasis on infrastructure, agriculture, health, education, water supply, growth and employment generation.

Other sectors, he said, included poverty reduction through social safety net programmes, governance and financial management reforms, among others.

According to the statement, out of the total amount, Federal Government will take 25.8 billion dollars and states 4.1 billion dollars.

A further breakdown shows that 18.3 billion dollars will be spent on infrastructure development, with 14.6 billion dollars going to federal projects and 3.7 billion dollars going to state projects.

The projects billed to benefit from the loans are the Mambila Hydro Electric Power Project, which will get 4.8 billion dollars and the Abuja Mass Rail Transit project, phase two getting 1.6 billion dollars.

Also, 3.5 billion dollars is slated for the completion of the Railway Modernisation Coastal Project from Calabar to Port Harcourt-Onne Deep Sea Port segment.

About 2.4 billion dollars will go to the Lagos-Kano Railway Modernisation project; 1.3 billion dollars is specifically for the Lagos-Ibadan segment and 1.1 billion dollars will go to the Kano-Kaduna segment.

Also, 4.5 billion dollars will go to acquire Euro bonds; 3.5 billion dollars will be dedicated to the Federal Government budget support.

The reports says 2.2 billion will be sunk in education and health projects at state and federal levels.

Similarly, 1.2 billion dollars is set aside for agriculture projects at both levels and 200 million dollars is for economic management and statistics. (NAN)

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