FEC approves Tinubu’s request for fresh world bank loan of $3.45 billion

Tinubu’s administration has applied for a $3.45 billion loan from the World Bank to fund five initiatives, and the FEC has given its blessing.

Channels TV quotes Wale Edun, Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, as saying this following yesterday’s FEC meeting in Abuja.

During a meeting at the State House, he added, the council unanimously accepted the loan request and the $3.5bn “zero-interest” loan would soon be disbursed to the Federal Government.

He claims that the loan is due in 40 years, with a 10-year grace period starting in 2033.

I presented five memoranda to the Federal Executive Council today, all of which were unanimously approved. He told reporters at the State Department that the deals involved “concessional and, in many cases, zero-interest financing” from the World Bank and the International Development Association.

Funding was given to initiatives in the electricity sector and the renewable energy sector. Funding was made available to governments for resource mobilisation projects to aid in the collection of IGR.

There was a programme designed to help educate and empower young women. The fifth and final funding request that was approved was for a project aimed at women.

So, in total, those $5 loans cost $3.45bn, he continued. You also know that the term length is typically around 40 years, that there is a moratorium of around 10 years, and that the interest rates are extremely low or, in the case of either loans, nothing. But there would be costs involved.”

A Humanitarian and Poverty Alleviation Trust Fund has been approved by FEC, Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation Betta Edu stated during the briefing.

According to the minister, the Fund will aid the federal government in its response to humanitarian problems in Nigeria and the government intends to generate at least $5 billion every year to put into it.