Projects in the nation’s agriculture, rail transportation and Covid 19 emergency response and preparedness are among those that have suffered setbacks as a result of failure to disburse $5.83 billion foreign loans.
The loans which ought to have been disbursed as at December 31, 2020, will take the country’s total foreign debt commitment to more than $37.8bn from $31.99bn as at September 30, 2020.
About $3.27 billion of the loan is to come from International Development Association, a member of World Bank Group, while $1.25bn is expected from the Export-Import Bank of China, and another 500 million from Agence Francaise de Development and $425 million from the European Development Fund.
The Debt Management Office (DMO) in a table posted on its website tagged ‘External loans signed but yet disbursed as at December 31, 2020,’ listed projects and agencies to benefit when the loans are eventually disbursed to include Nigerian 40 Parboiled Rice Processing Plants Project, Say No to Famine of Nigeria, Nigeria Transmission Expansion Project Phase I (NTEP-1), Nigeria Transmission Expansion Project Phase I (NTEP-1) (AGTF); Second Africa Higher Education Centers of Excellence for Development Impact (ACE 3) Project; Rural Access and Agricultural Marketing Project; the Northern Corridor Power Transmission Project; and the Enhancing Vocational Training Delivery for the Power Sector in Nigeria.
The DMO, however, did not give a reason why the loans had not been disbursed.
