One of the advantages of receiving a loan from an Islamic institution is that there is no interest payable on the loan. The Federal government of Nigeria is seeking a loan of $450 million from the Islamic Development Bank, in Saudi Arabia.
The bank is expected to agree to provide the loan to the Federal Government but many analysts are worried that the monies will be misappropriated by the Federal Government and diverted to other uses such as the warchest for the 2015 elections. The ruling party is known to always keep a slush fund of monies harvested from sources such as clandestine crude oil sales, inflated contracts and other corrupt practices.
According to Vice President, Namadi Sambo, the loan from the Islamic Development Bank will partially be used to build 4 science secondary schools in Kaduna at $17.9m or N 2.8 billion. This means the government intends to use N700 million to build a secondary school in the State where the present vice-president was a former Governor.
Analysts are of the opinion that the government has no intention of building such schools in Kaduna and have over-inflated the contract amount, in order to divert funds for personal and political use.
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