Nigerian Senate Approves New Loans, Despite Debt Concerns

The parliament has passed a U.S.$2.4 billion supplementary budget to address rising insecurity in the country and fund Covid-19 vaccines. The country is grappling with mass abductions at schools, kidnappings for ransom, conflict between herdsmen and farmers, armed robberies and various insurgencies in the north. The supplementary budget will now go to the Lower House of Assembly before being submitted to President Muhammadu Buhari for signing.

The Senate has also approved the U.S.$6.1 billion loan request by the president, who in May 2021, asked the National Assembly to approve a loan to fund the deficit in the 2021 national budget. The loan, he said, will be raised from multilateral and bilateral tenders, as well as the international capital market. The approval of the loan comes amid Nigeria's growing deficit and debt crisis. In April 2021, the National Assembly approved loans requests of U.S.$1.5 billion and €995million for the Buhari administration.