The Coordinating Minister of the Economy and
Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, and several state
governors represented by their state Finance Commissioners Thursday,
appeared before the Senate to defend the $7.9 billion foreign loans
sought from the Exim Bank of China, Islamic Bank, African Development
Bank (AfDB) and the French Development Bank (AFD).
The project is part of Federal Government's proposed pipeline projects under the Medium Term 2012 to 2014 External Borrowing Plans, which is before the Senate Committee on Foreign Loans and Debt.
However, the Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Loans and Debt, Senator Uzamere Ehigie, who expressed disappointment over the absence of some states because of the implication of the facility, threatened to shut out state governments, which were not represented at the meeting.
States not represented during the presentation and defence included Ondo, Rivers and Delta.
But, Okonjo-Iweala, who was represented by the Minister of State for Finance, Mr. Yerima Ngama, had earlier sent the proposed pipeline projects foreign borrowing plan to the upper chamber, which had scaled through several deliberations and readings before it was transmitted to the various committees for final scrutiny.
The commissioners, who represented their various state governments, however, complained of their inability to get disbursement on the external borrowing approvals last year despite satisfactorily scaling all laid down procedures for the loans.
Ehigie assured stakeholders in the project that the lawmakers would do justice to all the issues raised in the projects implementation, evaluation and monitoring of the plans in order to achieve the purpose for which they are being sought.
He stressed that there were communication gaps between the Ministry of Finance and the state governments, stressing that such grey areas should be expeditiously resolved henceforth.
Ehigie urged Okonjo-Iweala to look into the issues raised by the Finance Commissioners with the view to reconciling them.
The project is part of Federal Government's proposed pipeline projects under the Medium Term 2012 to 2014 External Borrowing Plans, which is before the Senate Committee on Foreign Loans and Debt.
However, the Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Loans and Debt, Senator Uzamere Ehigie, who expressed disappointment over the absence of some states because of the implication of the facility, threatened to shut out state governments, which were not represented at the meeting.
States not represented during the presentation and defence included Ondo, Rivers and Delta.
But, Okonjo-Iweala, who was represented by the Minister of State for Finance, Mr. Yerima Ngama, had earlier sent the proposed pipeline projects foreign borrowing plan to the upper chamber, which had scaled through several deliberations and readings before it was transmitted to the various committees for final scrutiny.
The commissioners, who represented their various state governments, however, complained of their inability to get disbursement on the external borrowing approvals last year despite satisfactorily scaling all laid down procedures for the loans.
Ehigie assured stakeholders in the project that the lawmakers would do justice to all the issues raised in the projects implementation, evaluation and monitoring of the plans in order to achieve the purpose for which they are being sought.
He stressed that there were communication gaps between the Ministry of Finance and the state governments, stressing that such grey areas should be expeditiously resolved henceforth.
Ehigie urged Okonjo-Iweala to look into the issues raised by the Finance Commissioners with the view to reconciling them.
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