President Muhammadu Buhari has written to the National Assembly seeking a fresh $5.513bn external loan to finance the revised 2020 budget.
Control TV moments ago gathered that the President, President of the Senate Ahmed Lawan, read the letter to lawmakers during plenary on Today.
In the letter, the President explained that the loan will be used to finance the deficit in the 2020 budget and support critical projects from the State and Federal Government.
According to President Buhari, the Federal Government is also planning to raise money externally and internally.
The external loan is $5.513 billion; $3.4bn will come from the IMF, $1.5 from the World Bank, $500m from (AfDB), and $113m from the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB).
Control TV has also relied on credible sources from the CBN that the IMF $1.5b facility has been secured.
The President further noted that the assumptions in the 2020 budget are no longer attainable given the slump in oil prices and lower demand for crude oil caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
He also presented a revised 2020 Appropriation Bill and 2020-2022 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP) to the Senate.
President Buhari is asking the Senate to give an expedient passage of the revised 2020 budget and MTEF because of the urgency of the situation.
The Senate has, however, suspended its rules and commenced the second reading of the revised budget, the MTEF, and the FSP
(C) Control TV 2020.