WED, MARCH 11 2020-theG&BJournal- The Federal Government said Wednesday reports making rounds that a portion of the loans recently approved by the National Assembly will be paid to consultants are ‘’false in their entirety.’’
The Presidency said in a statement seen by TheG&BJournal that the Nigerian government negotiates directly with bilateral and multilateral lenders, involved-‘’there are no middle.’’
The Senate last week approved a $22.7 billion loan after heated debate, as requested by the presidency to finance some critical infrastructure around the country. The approval was met with some deep public backlash.
The federal government explained that the loans are concessional, long-tenored and are for the purpose of financing infrastructure and other developmental social project all of which have long-term multiplier effects in terms of job creation, business opportunities and overall increase in Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product.
‘’The new borrowing is consistent with the subsisting Debt Management Strategy which seeks to replace short term high-interest cost domestic debt with low-interest long-term external debt and is one of the measures that is being implemented to moderate the level of Debt Service,’’ the Presidency said.
According to the statement, ‘’the achievements in this regard are evidenced in the declining share of domestic debt in the total public debt from over 83% in December 2015 to about 68% in June 2019.
‘’Each of the loans listed in the plan will be negotiated on individual basis, with the various lenders-it is not a single loan/ The loans will also not be disbursed at once even after all approvals have been received and contracts signed. This is the practice for project-tied loans,’’ the Presidency clarified.
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