CSOs Kicks as Finance, Power Ministries Get N618bn Multilateral Loan

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CSOs Kicks as Finance, Power Ministries Get N618bn Multilateral Loan

Civil society organisations and power consumer groups have expressed concern over the N618bn multilateral and bilateral loans allocated to the Ministries of Finance and Power in the 2024 budget.

Although the budget captured it as project-tied loans sourced from multilateral and bilateral agreements with international funding agencies, the Nigeria Electricity Consumer Advocacy Network, and Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre decried the spate of borrowing by the Federal Government.

They argued that the borrowed funds had yet to impact positively on the well-being of Nigerians, stressing that despite the trillions of naira spent by the Federal Government and private investors on the power sector since it was privatised 10 years ago, power supply nationwide had remained poor.

Figures in the 2024 budget indicate that no fewer than 13 ministries of the Federal Government are to receive the sum of N1.1tn as project-tied loans sourced from multilateral and bilateral agreements with international funding agencies.

The project-tied funds, separate from the proposed budgetary allocations, were obtained from contractual agreements with the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Africa Development Bank and other international funding agencies.

Economic Confidential reports that a project-tied loan is an official grant by an organisation to a country with the condition that the money should be spent on particular things. The money loaned is spent buying goods or services in the lending nation.

An analysis of the budget showed that while the Ministry of Finance got N353.94bn, the Ministry of Power received an allocation of N264.26bn, bringing their combined allocation from the loan to N618.2bn.

The combined allocation to the two ministries from the multilateral loans is more than half the allocation to the remaining 11 ministries that are to get the loans.

It was observed that the Ministry of Works got N94.8bn, followed by the Ministry of Education, N63.2bn; Interior, N52.5bn; Water Resources, N40.5bn; Health and Social Welfare, N57.4bn; and the Federal Capital Territory Administration, N48.2bn.

Others include the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, N29.5bn; Environment, N28.8bn; Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, N9.5bn; Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, N4.3bn; and Solid Minerals Development, N5bn.

This figure was contained in the 2024 sectoral allocation budget details obtained by Economic Confidential.

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