$29.680B FG Loan: South East APC Urges Senate To Rescind Decision On Rejection

Posted by African Examiner Featured, Latest Headlines, News, News From The State Wednesday, November 2nd, 2016

Ignatius Okpara

ENUGU, NIGERIA (AFRICAN EXAMINER) – The South East chapter of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), has appealed to members of the Nigerian Senate to rescind their decision of rejecting the request for a $29.680 billion loan by President Muhammadu Buhari.

The Federal Government (FG) had explained that the proposed loan if approved by the lawmakers, was planned for the three fiscal years of 2016-2018.

A statement signed by the South East Publicity Secretary of the party, Hon. Hycienth Ngwu, and made available to AFRICAN EXAMINER Tuesday night in Enugu said: “the rejection of the request by the Senate is ill-advised and an ill wind that blows no one any good.

“We believe the loan, which is within the acceptable Debt Management Office debt threshold of 19.39 per cent for External Debt/GDP ratio and far less below 56.0 per cent debt threshold for External Debt/GDP ratio by the World Bank’s, Country Policy and Institutional Assessment (CPIA), for Countries in Nigeria’s peer-group, respectively, is sustainable in the medium-term.

The statement added that “we also believe that the only quick way out of the present economic recession, which has thrown the masses into untold hardship and weakened all productive sectors of the economy, is by massive spending by the government.

“And with the fall in oil production and its price, the only rational way for government to raise enough fund to exit the economy from recession is through external borrowing which has the advantage of long maturity profile, very little interest rate and creates large space for domestic borrowing by the private sector participants.

“We strongly believe in the ability of the Federal Government to judiciously apply the loan in building the critical infrastructures as planned in order to quicken the diversification of the economy away from oil dependence.

According to the statement, the diversification which will come with robust economic growth would substantially make the nation’s economy self-sustaining and pay back the loan effortlessly.

“We are aware that some years back, the public sector debt in United Kingdom was over 200 per cent of their GDP. But today, the growth in UK economy occasioned by the debt has helped to reduce the burden of debt.

The party therefore, appealed to the entire members of the National Assembly to put the Nation and the masses first by rescinding their rejection of the loan plan by the FG.

“In partnership devoid of party sentiments we shall make Nigeria great again” the statement assured.