By Bode Olagoke
Abuja
Against the background of widespread interests and concerns generated by the government’s move to obtain foreign loan, indications emerged yesterday on how President Muhammadu Buhari is planning to spend the proposed the $29.9 billion loan.
A document obtained exclusively by Blueprint, from a reliable source, revealed that the presidency had drawn up a list of beneficiaries of the loan as well as project meant for execution between 2016 and 2018.
The list includes Nigerian Electricity Transmission and Access project ($364), Social Inclusion and Welfare Advancement project ($500) and Power Sector Guarantees Project to guaranteed investors’ fund ($300).
Others are $200 million set aside to implement economic reforms and governance project, $100 million meant for staple processing support project, while part of the loan, $88 million is to deployed towards the development of the mining industry.
Apart from specific projects, the Federal Government also intends to set aside part of the loan, $2.5 billion to serve as budget support loan to bridge the gap in the budget and cut the deficit occasioned by the sharp drop in oil price.
States that would benefit from the loan facility include, Kaduna, to the tune of $350 million to enable it implement its development plan including policy and institutional reforms, Ogun state ($350 m) to fund development plan, while Borno, Yobe and Adamawa are to benefit in the area of community and social development projects at the cost of $75 million.
Also, states like Gombe, Delta, Imo, Plateau, Adamawa and Bauchi will have $90 million devoted for providing safe drinking and sanitation facilities, whereas Anambra, Bauchi and Ekiti state will be sharing from $100 million funds for education. Lagos state is benefit from $200 million projects meant to improve power transmission to support industries in the state.
Both Enonyi and Abia states are to get funding support for road projects to the tune of $70 million and $100 million respectively. Katsina state is to have $110 million to be used for the rehabilitation and construction of health facilities, including health equipment, while Jigawa state will get $32 million for the execution of integrated rural development projects.
When asked for comment on the revelations, the Director- General of the Voice of Nigeria (VON) and a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, Osita Okechukwu said that President Muhammadu Buhari’s plan for the utilisation of the $29.9 billion foreign loan covers several critical infrastructure development needs.
According to him, the country is in dire need of funds to revamp economy, create employment and to invest in critical infrastructures like upgrading the electricity platform, building modern railway lines and improve on agriculture.
“We need to borrow and if there is any investor that would like to borrow us money for Enugu coal, it is desirable. We need to borrow for second Onitsha Bridge, so that the investors can be paying themselves back. The traffic in Onitsha in the second bridge we would payback in less than 10 years because those that would invest would also be interested in the collection of the tax and levees,” he said.