Senate approves Tinubu’s $500m loan request to finance mass metering

The Senate has approved a $500 million loan request by President Bola Tinubu to finance the mass metering programme of the federal government.

The president’s request was approved by the upper legislative chamber on Wednesday after Haruna Manu, vice chair of the committee on local and foreign debt, presented a report on it.

The request is part of the $8.6 billion and €100 million loan Tinubu asked the national assembly to approve in November.

The red chamber approved the request as part of the 2022–2024 external borrowing rolling plan of the president after it considered a report of the senate committee on local and foreign debt.

While presenting the report, Manu said the request ought to have been approved earlier, but it was delayed because the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) did not appear before his committee to defend the request.

The senator said the loan would sustain Nigeria’s economic growth and strengthen Nigeria’s independence as a sovereign nation.

He said the loan was structured in a way that would prevent anyone from “compromising its disbursement.”.

“The committee recommends that the senate approve the ongoing negotiations for external borrowing in the sum of $500 million for BPE. That the proceeds of the loan from the funding agency be forwarded to the national assembly before execution,” he said.