The Senate,
on Thursday, approved external loans for 10 states totalling $750m for the
purpose of financing various projects across the country.
The
benefitting states are Kaduna, Ogun, Ebonyi, Abia, Katsina, Jigawa, Kano,
Enugu, Plateau and Ondo.
The Senate
also approved the sum of $1.806bn for the Lagos-Ibadan segment of the
Lagos-Kano rail modernisation project.
From the
African Development Bank, Abia is getting $200m for Rural Access and Mobility
Project; Ebonyi is to get $70m for Ebonyi Ring Road project (to be co-financed
by the Islamic Development Bank); Enugu, Kano, Plateau and Ondo are to jointly
get $200m for the National Water Urban Sector Reform.
The IDB will
finance the Integrated Agricultural and Water Resources Development project in
Kano with $200m; and the Ebonyi Ring Road project with $80m (to be co-financed
with AfDB).
Enugu and
Kano states will jointly get $100m from the French Development Agency for the
Third National Urban Water Sector Reform project.
Acting
President Yemi Osinbajo had written to the Senate to seek legislative approval
for separation of state projects from the 2016-2018 External Borrowing
(Rolling) Plan of the Federal Government.
The upper
chamber of the National Assembly had referred the request to its Committee on
Local and Foreign Debts.
At the
plenary on Thursday, the Senate approved the report by the committee which
recommended that the request should be granted.
The panel
called for effective oversight by relevant Senate committees on the
implementation of the projects for which the loans were taken.
It said,
“The projects are special initiatives of the Federal Government which, if and
when fully implemented, will contribute to stimulate the economy, enhance
development and create both direct and indirect jobs for Nigerians,
particularly the youths in the concerned states.”
The approval
for the $1.806bn for the Lagos-Ibadan rail project, which is part of the Lagos-Kano
Rail Modernisation Project, was based on another report by the Senate Committee
on Local and Foreign Debts.
The panel
recommended that “the Senate do approve part of the 2016-2018 External
Borrowing (Rolling) Plan as it pertains only to the Lagos-Kano Railway
Modernisation Project (Lagos-Ibadan Segment Double Track) and the World Bank
supported projects on the reconstruction and rehabilitation of the North-East
region totalling $1.806bn.”
The panel
also recommended that the Senate call for the immediate negotiation for the
eastern corridor (Port Harcourt-Maiduguri) rail project and submit same for
approval by the legislature.
It further
recommended for approval by the Senate the Kano-Kaduna segment, the Coastal
Railway Project (Lagos-Calabar Segment)
and the Port Harcourt-Maiduguri Line (eastern corridor) as soon as they
had been approved by the Board of China-Exim Bank.
Punch
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