The Senate has formally thrown out a request by President Muhammadu Buhari to borrow about $30 billion to fix infrastructure in the country within a two-year period.
The President had on Tuesday last week sent a request to the National Assembly to approve the external borrowing plan to execute key infrastructural projects across the country between 2016 and 2018.
When the request came up for consideration during Tuesday’s plenary, the nays had their day.
Senate Leader, Ali Ndume, asked the Senate to consider the request of the President for the huge loan.
But when the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, put the request to a voice vote twice senators rejected it completely with a loud nay on both occasions.
President Buhari has in his letter, said the external loan, the biggest in Nigeria’s history, will fund targeted projects cutting 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.
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.
