President Muhammadu Buhari has written the House of Representatives seeking the approval of a fresh external loan amounting to $5.513bn.
The letter was read by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila at the Plenary on Thursday.
The proposed external funds were said to be for the 2020 budget deficit, financing of critical projects, and some states of the federation. The President also handed over a revised 2020 Appropriation Bill and 2020-2022 Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper.
In April 2020, the National Assembly had given a speedy approval for President Buhari to borrow N850bn for the Federal Government in order to finance programmes and projects in the 2020 budget. Meanwhile, the $22.79bn external loan which was approved by the Senate in March is still pending before the House.
According to the Debt Management Office, the country already has a debt profile of about N26.2Tn, which was one of the major reasons why the 8th Senate, under the leadership of Bukola Saraki in 2016 rejected the request to borrow the sum of $29.960bn from external creditors.
