ANAMBRA ASSEMBLY OKAY SOLUDO’S #1BN LOAN
REPORTER: UCHE NDEKE
The Anambra State House of Assembly has approved the request by the Executive arm of state Government to obtain a loan of one hundred billion naira.
The approval followed an evaluation of the report of the House Committee on Public Procurement presented to the Committee of the Whole during plenary.
The State House of Assembly, after reading the letter from Governor Chukwuma Soludo, requesting for approval to get the loan, referred it to the Committee on Public Accounts to look into the issues associated with the loan and interface with the executive with a view to ensuring that the interest of the people was adequately protected.
Presenting the report at the Committee of the whole, the Chairman House Committee on Public Accounts, Mr. Somtochukwu Udeze, said they interacted with the commissioners for Budget and Finance where salient questions on the need for the loan, duration, monthly deductions, interest rate, terms attached to it and the current debt profile of the state were raised and answers provided by the two commissioners.
According to Mr. Udeze, the Commissioners revealed that the debt profile of the state was One Hundred and Seven Billion naira but noted that it was still healthy to borrow another one hundred billion naira.
He said the executive arm also explained that the loan, when obtained, would be used strictly for infrastructural development in the areas of road, bridges and fly overs across the state.
According to him, the Committee harped on the need for greater emphasis on the increased Internally Generated Revenue to further minimize borrowing to fund development in the area.
The committee also demanded that the executive arm provided the proposed projects, descriptions and expected cost of each of the projects to be funded with the loan.
In their submissions, some of the lawmakers, including Mr. Smart Okafor representing Nnewi North constituency, and Mr. Lawrence Ezeudu of Dunukofia Constituency, said loan for production was never an issue but pointed out that their areas were not captured in the list of projects for which it was being accessed.
Mr. Douglass Egbuna of Onitsha North constituency, and Mr. Onyebuchi Offfor of Ekwusigo expressed regret that the previous administration took loan with the claim that it would be used to execute infrastructural projects but it was never so.
They, however, applauded the Soludo led administration for being specific and people conscious in the choice of what to do with the loan for which approval was being sought.
Radio Nigeria however gathered that the 2022 revised budget had only 42% deficit, which means that the one hundred billion naira loan, when obtained, will be for 2022, 2023 and 2024 budget deficits as the government has noted that nothing more than the deficit of 2022 would be spent from the loan.
EDITED BY CHUKWUBUIKE MADU
