The Senate has approved President Muhammadu Buhari’s request to raise a fresh loan of 850 billion Naira from the domestic capital market to finance projects in the 2020 budget.
The N850 billion loan request is different from the N500billion loan earlier requested by the Federal government to fund the Social Economic Programme.
Lawmakers went straight to business as the reason for their sudden resumption is to help sustain solutions to the health crisis which has affected several sectors of the economy including the funding of the 2020 budget.
After a closed door session, the Senate began the day by opening letters from President Muhammadu Buhari.
One of such letters requested a fresh loan approval of 850billion Naira from the domestic capital market.
This fresh loan request is intended to fund some capital projects in the 2020 Budget.
The Senate granted an accelerated approval to this request after suspending order 1, which determines how legislative matters are treated.
It directed its committees on finances and Appropriations to liaise with the Finance Minister for more details on the loan request in view of the new external borrowing plan.
Senators also abided by the safety guidelines by putting on safety kits
and also maintaining social distancing in the chamber, leaving two seats
in between them.