The House of Representatives has received a request from the Presidency to include the Development Bank of Nigeria and Fund for Agricultural Finance in Nigeria in the addendum of the 2016-2018 External Borrowing Plan.

Reading the letter of Acting President Yemi Osinbajo at the plenary on Tuesday, 23 May 2017, the Speaker RT. Hon Yakubu Dogara (APC;Bauchi) stated that a facility of the sum of $1.28 Billion Dollars appeared to have been inadvertently omitted in the 2014-2016 borrowing plan approved by the National Assembly before asking for its inclusion into the 2016-2018 external borrowing plan addendum.

According to the letter, the Development Bank of Nigeria was ready to commence operation and donors were ready to commence disbursement pending National Assembly’s approval. The Acting President also tendered an explanation for the inclusion of Agricultural Finance in Nigeria FAFIN-II, which KfW Development Bank of Germany is supporting with 9 million euros. According to the Acting President’s letter, although the first tranche of FAFIN-I has been fully disbursed, the second tranche of 9 million euros for FAFIN-II was subject to National Assembly’s approval. It also described the second tranche of the FAFIN-II as expedient” for the consolidation of the gains in the investment of the first tranche.”

It would be recalled that the National Assembly received the initial letter requesting 29.96 Billion Dollars for the Federal Government’s 2016-2018 External Borrowing plan in October 2016. It is also noteworthy that although the present letter was referred to the House Committee on Loans, Aid and Debt Management, no time frame was given to the said Committee to report progress.