President Muhammadu Buhari has said countries and institutions are aware of Nigeria’s capabilities to pay debts that’s why the country’s loan requests are often approved.
He stated this during a meeting with members of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) at the State House, Abuja on Wednesday.
The president said creditors had full confidence in the country’s capacity to utilize resources and repay loans.
Buhari, however, said that the destruction of oil facilities slows the pace at which revenue is generated. He gave assurance that the government would be harder on saboteurs.
He said; “We are credible, that’s why the countries and institutions agreed to support our development with loans.
“We thank God that Nigeria is still one. We should not forget that more than a million died for the nation to survive”.
Meanwhile, CorrectNG earlier reported that Buhari wrote to seek the approval of the House of Representatives to borrow fresh N819.5 billion.
The request was made known in a letter read by Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila, noting that the loan is meant to finance the supplementary budget for 2022.
Buhari said that the budget if approved, will take a total deficit in 2022 to N8.17 trillion.
According to him, the Federal Government decided to explore a supplementary budget because of the impact of flood and the need to complete major roads that are at 85% completion.
The letter reads; “The president writes that 2022 has witnessed the worst flood incident in recent history which has caused massive destruction of farmlands at a point already close to harvest season, this may compound the situation of food security and nutrition in this country.
“The flood also devastated the road infrastructure across the 36 states and the FCT. It has affected several sections of major roads and bridges nationwide that are critical to the movement of goods and services. The water sector was equally affected by the flood, and there is a need to complete some ongoing projects that have achieved 85% completion across the country.”
