By Ken Afor
The approval of the House of Representatives for a $8.6bn and €100m external borrowing plan for critical infrastructure in areas such as power, roads, water, railway, and health is being sought by President Bola Tinubu.
The President also forwarded the Federal Capital Territory Supplementary Budget to the green chamber for consideration.
Tinubu’s request was read on Tuesday on the floor of the lower legislative chamber by Tajudeen Abbas, speaker of the house of representatives.
In the borrowing plan, the president is seeking approval of the legislature to borrow the sums of $8,699,168,559 and €100,000,000
The plan also includes $1 billion from the African Development Bank (AfDB) and $1.5 billion from the World Bank group.
Tinubu said the 2022-2024 external borrowing rolling plan was approved by the federal executive council (FEC) on May 15, under former President Muhammadu Buhari.
The president said the projects in the borrowing plan cut across all sectors with “specific emphasis on infrastructure, agriculture, health, education, water supply, growth, security and employment generation, as well as financial management reforms, among others”.
Tinubu will also present the 2024 budget to the National Assembly on Wednesday. This was after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) approved a 2024 budget of N27.5 trillion.
The approval came on the heels of the review of the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) earlier passed by the National Assembly which benchmarked the exchange rate at N700 to $1 and crude oil price at $73.96 cent per barrel.
The Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Abubakar Bagudu, told journalists at the State House on Monday that FEC revised the MTEF and the Fiscal Policy to use an exchange rate of N750 to $1 and also a benchmark crude oil reference price of $77.96 per barrel.
According to Bagudu, the FEC also approved an Appropriation Bill for 2024 with an aggregate expenditure of N27.5 trillion, an increase of over N1.5 trillion from the previously estimated.
