How We Plan to Spend the $29.96bn Loan - FG Gives Breakdown

Following the announcement of plans to borrow about $29.96bn from international money lenders, the Federal Government has spoken out about how the money will be spent.

Mrs Kemi Adeosun, the Minister of Finance

 

The Federal Government has given details into how the widely reported loan it plans to borrow, will be spent.

 

The FG had revealed that within the next three years, it plans to borrow $29.96bn from the World Bank, African Development Bank, and Japan International Co-operation Agency.

 

The other international financial agencies it plans to borrow the money from are Islamic Development Bank and China EximBank.

 

Mrs Kemi Adeosun, the Minister of Finance, gave details of the loan in Abuja on Thursday in a statement by her Special Adviser, Festus Akanbi.

 

President Muhammadu Buhari had on Tuesday forwarded a request to the National Assembly to approve external borrowing plan of $29.96bn to execute key infrastructure across the country between 2016 and 2018.

 

According to the News Agency of Nigeria, Buhari said the borrowings will target projects 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, governance and financial management reforms, among others.

 

According to the statement, out of the total amount, Federal Government will take $25.8bn and states$ 4.1bn.

 

A further breakdown shows that $18.3bn will be spent on infrastructure development, with $14.6bn going to federal projects and $3.7bn going to state projects.

 

The projects billed to benefit from the loans are the Mambila Hydro Electric Power Project, which will get $4.8bn and the Abuja Mass Rail Transit project, phase two getting 1.6 billion dollars.

 

Also, $3.5bn is slated for the completion of the Railway Modernisation Coastal Project from Calabar to Port Harcourt-Onne Deep Sea Port segment.

 

About $2.4bn will go to the Lagos-Kano Railway Modernisation project; $1.3bn is specifically for the Lagos-Ibadan segment and $1.1bn will go to the Kano-Kaduna segment.

 

Also, $4.5bn  will go to acquire Euro bonds; $3.5bn will be dedicated to the Federal Government budget support.

 

The reports says $2.2bn will be sunk in education and health projects at state and federal levels.

 

Similarly, $1.2bn is set aside for agriculture projects at both levels and $200m is for economic management and statistics.