Senate approves Tinubu’s $500m World Bank loan for electricity meters

The Senate on Wednesday approved a $500m World Bank loan request by President Bola Tinubu to procure prepaid electricity meters for Nigerians across the country.

The fund was approved for the Bureau of Public Enterprises after considering the report of the Senate Committee on Local and Foreign Debts.

The approval of the Senate followed the presentation of a report by the Vice Chairman of the Committee, Haruna Manu.

Recall that the $500m loan was part of the $7.94bn World Bank loan which Tinubu sought the Senate’s approval for on November 1, 2023.

It was under the 2022-2024 external borrowing plan.

The President had also sought the approval for €100 million then.

However, the Senate approved borrowing $7.4 billion during its special plenary on December 30, 2023, after considering the report of the committee.

Presenting the report, Manu said the $500m for the BPE could not be approved because the agency did not appear before the committee to defend the proposal

The lawmaker stated that the terms and conditions under which the loan was brought would not in any manner compromise the sustainability of Nigeria’s economic growth or hinder the integrity and independence of Nigeria as a sovereign state.

He said, “The committee recommends that the Senate do approve the ongoing negotiations of the external borrowing in the sum of $500m for BPE; that the perforations of the loan from the funding agency be forwarded to the National Assembly before execution.”

It will be recalled that the Senate had earlier put on hold the approval of the N$500m because the BPE was unavailable to defend it when it was scheduled to appear before its committees.

But after the defence of the borrowing, the Senate on Wednesday gave its approval for the loan in a unanimous decision presided over by its Deputy President, Barau Jibrin who stood in for the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio.

“The programme development objective of this project is to improve the financial and technical performance of electricity distribution companies,” the Senate report said.

Following the consideration of the report, Barau ruled in favour of the loan request approval.