President Muhammadu Buhari’s request to obtain a fresh loan of N850 billion as additional funding for some projects in the 2020 budget was on Tuesday approved by the Nigerian Senate.
The senators resumed plenary on Tuesday after a five-week COVID-19 recess.
Buhari’s letter requesting the approval for the facility from the domestic capital market was read on the floor of the Upper Chamber in Abuja by the Senate President, Dr Ahmad Lawan.
Persecondnews reports that the senators had given expeditious consent to the President’s request, they asked the Senate Committees on Finance and Appropriation to liaise with the Minister of Finance, Budget, and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, to get more details on the loan request.
Lawan, who welcomed his colleagues from the recess, said they decided to resume legislative business “to help sustain solutions to the COVID-19 crisis and ensure the crisis does not create more problems for the government and its people.’’
The pandemic has affected the 2020 budget and the National Assembly has a responsibility to work with the Executive to address the problem, he said.
