.@GuardianNigeria recently published a claim that 40% of the foreign loans recently approved by Senate (not yet by HOR) will be paid to “consultants.” Which betrays a sad misunderstanding of how these loans work.
A few things to note, by way of information:
A few things to note, by way of information:
1. Loans are negotiated directly by @NigeriaGov with bilateral and multilateral institutions (World Bank, AFDB, China Exim etc), and there are no middlemen or women or consultants involved in these loan negotiations.
2. It is not a single loan - it is several different loans from different financing institutions for different projects with different timelines.
Not all the loans have been fully negotiated or concluded by the way, but you NEED to have NASS approval for all intended borrowing.
Not all the loans have been fully negotiated or concluded by the way, but you NEED to have NASS approval for all intended borrowing.
3. The NASS approval is NECESSARY legislative cover for the Government’s Borrowing Plans. It’s then up to the FGN to negotiate the terms of each loan with the necessary parties. So, again, it’s not like it’s a single loan of $22bn that will be arriving in cash, LOL.
4. Loans that are tied to projects tend to be disbursed in phases, based on project implementation timelines. In some cases the loan monies don’t even come to the Govt; they are disbursed from financing institution directly to project contractor(s), based on progress of work.
All of this is intended as information to help improve the quality of public debate on this matter. Feel free to disagree with the rationale for the loans,or the outlined projects.
But let our opinions and arguments be rooted in facts and not in ignorance. You’re all doing well.
But let our opinions and arguments be rooted in facts and not in ignorance. You’re all doing well.
And our newspapers need to do a better job of ensuring that they are providing the public with basic facts and context on these things. Your job is not to amplify or incentivize disinformation; it’s to challenge ignorance and not feed it. Stop the clickbait, stop being lazy.
