Senate grants Buhari express approval to borrow N850 billion

The Senate on Tuesday granted President Muhammadu Buhari express approval to raise a fresh loan of 850 billion Naira from the domestic capital market to finance projects in the 2020 budget.

The Senate also mandated its committees on finance, appropriation, Domestic and Foreign Debt and National Planning to liaise with the Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed to get more details on the loan request.

The approval was given soon after the President of the Senate, Senator Ahmad Lawan read a letter from President Muhammadu Buhari, seeking for the approval to go for fresh loan of N850 Billion from the Domestic Capital Market, the Vanguard reports.

President of the Senate, Senator Ahmad Lawan read the letter from President Buhari seeking the approval of the Senate to raise a fresh loan of 850 billion Naira from the domestic capital market to ensure adequate funds to finance projects in the 2020 budget.

Earlier the Senators resumed plenary this morning after spending thirty- six days at home following the outbreak of the deadly Coronavirus( COVIC- 19) that is at the moment, ravaging the world on the nation.

Soon after the plenary commenced at 10 30am, the Senators went into a closed-door session ten minutes after.

The closed-door session ended 12.02.

The Senate has also suspended Order 11 of the Senate Standing Order as Amended in order to enable the senators speak from seats not belonging to them to enable them to comply with social distancing.

On the Order Paper, today is a motion titled ” COVID-19 Pandemic: Reviewing the National Response to the challenges and the way forward”

The Sponsors of the motion are the Senate Majority Leader, Senator Yahaya Abdullahi, All Progressives Congress, APC, Kebbi North and the Minority Leader, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Abia South.

It is co-sponsored by Senators Yahaya Oloriegbe, APC, Kwara Central; Sabi Aliyu Abdullahi, Niger North; Chukwuka Utazi, Enugu North; Solomon Adeola, Lagos West and Sadiq Umar, Kwara North.