Senate Approves $75 Million World Bank Loan for Edo State

The Senate has approved a $75 million loan from the World Bank for Edo State.

According to Channels, “this is the second batch of the loan, as the first batch of 75 million dollars was earlier released for the implementation of the 2012 to 2014 development programme.”

President Buhari had earlier on requested for the loan via a letter to the Senate earlier this year.

Here is what the letter read:

I am writing to seek the consideration of the national assembly of Nigeria on approval of a request by the Edo state government‎ to obtain a $75 million credit facility from the World Bank,” the president wrote in a letter read on the floor of the upper chamber by Bukola Saraki, Senate President, on Tuesday.

You may wish to know that the World Bank had approved a Development Policy Programme (DPO) loan budget support for the total sum of $225 million to the Edo State government in 2012 to be implemented in three tranches of $75 million per annum.

The first tranche was approved by the National Assembly in the 2012-2014 Federal Government’s external borrowing plan.

The programme has since been successfully implemented by the state in 2014. After the successful implementation, the bank’s Board of Executive Directors approved the second tranche, which is the DPO 2, on April 29, 2015.

The DPO 2 was captured in the Federal Government’s external ruling borrowing plan of 2014-2017, which is pending with the National Assembly.

It is for the above reason that I seek your favour to facilitate the consideration and approval of the Development Policy Operation 2 (DPO2) loan of $75 million to enable the state to consolidate on the first tranche of the operation,” the letter further read.