Fresh $29.9b Foreign Loans Will Adddress Infrastructure Deficit -FG

The minister’s aide gives a breakdown of the key infrastructure that the new borrowings will address including: Mambila Hydro Electric Power Project ($4.8 billion);  Railway Modernization Coastal Railway Project (Calabar-Port Harcourt-Onne Deep Sea Port Segment) ($3.5 billion); Abuja Mass Rail Transit Project (Phase 2) ($1.6 billion); Lagos-Kano Railway Modernization Project (Lagos-Ibadan Segment Double Track) ($1.3 billion); Lagos Kano Railway Modernization Project (Kano-Kaduna Segment Double Track) ($1.1 billion) and others ($6.0 billion). The totalling $18.3 billion.

The rest of the borrowings are as following; Eurobond $4.5 billion; Federal Government Budget Support $3.5 billion; Social (Education & Health) $2.2 billion; Agriculture $1.2 billion and Economic Management & Statistics $0.2 billion. TOTAL $29.9 billion.

Considering the huge infrastructure deficit currently being experienced in the country and the enormous financial resources required to fill the gap in the face of dwindling resources and the inability of the annual budgetary provisions to bridge the infrastructure deficit, the Nigerian government has considered it necessary to resort to external borrowing to bridge the financing gap.