Acting President Yemi Osinbajo has written a letter to the Senate and the House of Representatives, requesting them to separate the $1.49bn
meant for projects in 10 states from the 2016-2018 External Borrowing (Rolling) Plan of the Federal Government.
He said this was to enable the National Assembly to give accelerated hearing to the loan request so that projects would be quickly executed in the affected states.
The states are Ogun, Ondo, Kaduna, Kano, Ebonyi, Plateau, Abia, Katsina, Jigawa and Enugu.
The states have projects tied to a total loan value of $1.49bn under the external borrowing plan.
Osinbajo’s letter was read to members of both chambers of the National Assembly on Tuesday in Abuja.
The letter read in part, “You may wish to know that the request for the separation of the state projects from the list became imperative in view of the current economic realities in the country and the pressing needs of these states to provide infrastructural and social amenities for their citizens.
“The total loans for the states being presented for special consideration and approval is $1.49bn.”
Ogun and Kaduna states have loan requests of $350m each for development projects; Kano, Plateau and Enugu will take $200m for water projects, while Kano will take another $200m for agricultural and water resources development.
Ebonyi is expected to take $70m and $80m for road projects; Abia is seeking $100m for rural development; Katsina is requesting $110m for health projects; while Jigawa has asked for $32.4m.
