National Assembly To Take $29.96 Billion External Loan - President Buhari

President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday
forwarded a request to the National Assembly to
approve external borrowing plan of $29.960 billion to
execute key infrastructural projects across the
country between 2016 and 2018.
The president also requested for virement of N180.8
billion in the 2016 budget for provision of needed
votes for some critical sectors across the 36 states of
the federation and the FCT.
Mr. Buhari made the requests in two separate letters
to the President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki, and
Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu
Dogara, which were read on the floor of both
chambers.
The president, in the external borrowing plan,
explained that targeted projects cuts 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 and
governance and financial management reforms,
among others.
According to him, the cost of the projects and
programmes under the borrowing (rolling) plan is
$29.960 billion.
This is made up of proposed projects and
programmes loan of $11.274 billion, special national
infrastructure projects $10.686 billion, Euro bonds of
$4.5 billion and Federal Government budget support
of $3.5 billion.
He explained further that the loan was very
necessary in view of the serious infrastructure
deficit in the country.
He said the country had huge infrastructure deficit
and enormous financial resources required to fill the
gap in the face of dwindling resources.
“This is in addition to the inability of our annual
budgetary provisions to bridge the deficit. It has
become necessary to resort to prudent external
borrowing to bridge the financing gap.
“This will largely be applied to key infrastructure
projects namely power, railway and roads among
others,” he added.
Mr. Buhari said the N180 billion would be moved
from monies already appropriated for special
intervention programmes both recurrent and capital
for funding of critical recurrent and capital items.
He said the request arose due to shortfalls in
provisions for personnel costs; inadequate provision
ab initio for amnesty programme; continuing
requirements to sustain the war against insurgency;
and depreciation of the Naira.
The letter reads in part: “In the course of
implementing the 2016 Appropriation Act, several
MDAs have presented issues pertaining to salary
shortfalls, the settlement of part of which has led to
the depletion of the Public Service Wage Adjustment.
“This Vote, which had a provision of
N33,597,400,000, now has a balance of N2,
758,296,000.
“The provision for NYSC in the 2016 budget is
inadequate to cater for the number of corps
members to be mobilised this year.
“In fact, an additional N8.5 billion is required to
cover the backlog of 129,469 corps members who are
due for call-up but would otherwise be left out till
next year due to funding constraints.
“Similarly, the provision for meal subsidy for the
Unity Colleges is inadequate for the number of
students in the schools.
“Due to the devaluation of the Naira, the budgetary
provisions for the foreign missions are no longer
sufficient to cover all their costs.”
In another letter dated Oct. 24, the president also
requested the National Assembly to approve the
virement of funds appropriated for special
intervention (recurrent) and special intervention
(capital) to fund some critical recurrent and capital
items.
According to him, the reasons for the request for
virement, include shortfalls in provisions for
personnel costs; inadequate provision ab initio for
some items like the amnesty programme; continuing
requirements to sustain the war against insurgency
and depreciation of the naira.
“However, considering the fact that budgeted
revenues are running behind target due to the
renewed violence in the Niger Delta.
“Also there are no supplementary revenue sources,
the most viable option for now is the virement of
appropriated funds from heads or sub-heads that
may not be fully utilised before the end of this fiscal
year,” Buhari added.
An analysis of the proposed virement shows that
Public Service Wage Adjustment (PSWA) will gulp
N71,800 billion.
“Contingency N1.2 billion, margin for increase in
cost N2 billion for cadet feeding – Police Academy,
Wudil, Kano, N932.4 million; amnesty programme
N35 billion; internal operations of the armed forces
N5.205 billion.
“Operation Lafiya Dole N13.933 billion; NYSC N19.792
billion; foreign missions N14.667 billion, and
augmentation of meal subsidy/direct teaching and
laboratory cost of N900 million bringing the total to
N166.630,886,954 billion.
“Statutory transfers to Public Complaints
Commission is estimated to gulp N1.2 billion while
the virement in respect of capital expenditure for
the Nigerian Air Force is N12.708 billion.
“Capital Supplementation: Presidential Initiative for
the North East (PINE) is N1.5 billion bringing the
total to N14,208,367,476 billion.”
Lastly, the president requested that N300 million be
vired from the budget of the Ministry of Power,
Works and Housing to fund the construction of
132KVA sub-station of fallen transmission towers,
replacement of glass insulators at Gwaram, Jigawa.

(NAN)