President Muhammadu Buhari is seeking the approval of the National Assembly for a fresh $5.513bn external loan to finance the revised 2020 budget.
The President comunicated the request through a letter, which was read to the lawmakers by Senate President, Ahmed Lawan, during plenary on Thursday.
According to the President, the loan will be used to finance the deficit in the 2020 budget and support critical projects from the State and Federal Government.
It is the plan of the Federal Government to raise money externally and internally.
The external loan is $5.513 billion; $3.4bn will come from the IMF, $1.5 from the World Bank, $500m from (AfDB), and $113m from the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB).
The President further noted that the assumptions in the 2020 budget are no longer attainable given the slump in oil prices and lower demand for crude oil caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
He also presented a revised 2020 Appropriation Bill and 2020-2022 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP) to the Senate.
President Buhari is asking the Senate to give an expedited passage of the revised 2020 budget and MTEF because of the urgency of the situation.
The Senate has, however, suspended its rules and commenced the second reading of the revised budget, the MTEF, and the FSP.
