FINTIRI SEEKS ADHA'S APPROVAL TO OBTAIN #17 BILLION LOAN

Governor Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri of Adamawa State has sought the House of Assembly's approval to obtain the whopping sum of #17 billion loan facility from 2 commercial banks for the execution of critical development projects across the state.

The Governor has also forwarded a letter to the House of Assembly, requesting it to restructure the existing term loan to the tune of #7.359 billion on the state government's SRA account with Zenith bank Plc for fresh tenor of 60 months based on new CBN interest rate of 14 percent.

The Governor's request as contained in 4 separate letters, were read at the resumed plenary session presided by the Speaker of the House, Rt. Hon. Aminu Iya Abbas Tuesday.

Fintiri told the Honourable Members that #15 billion loan facility will be secured from a Fidelity bank for the tenor of 48 months at 13 percent interest rate and 0.5 percent management fee, saying it will be used to finance critical development projects across Adamawa.

According to him, the whopping sum of #2 billion will be collected from Access bank Plc at a tenor of 10 years at 4.5 percent interest rate up to February, 2021 and 9 percent interest rate from 1st March, 2021. 

He informed them that the #2billion loan facility was at the instance of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), and extended to all the 36 states of the federation to fight Covid -19 pandemic.

He said that if the facility is finally approved, it will be used to finance the building and expansion of the state's medical/health care facilities and acquisition of medical equipment.

The Governor has also asked the House of Assembly to restructure an existing term loan and overdraft to the tune of #7.359, 654, 963.76 obtained by the previous administration which was earlier approved by the former House of Assembly.

According to him, the State Executive Council at its 5th (2020) meeting held on 13 the May, 2020, considered and approved the securing of the facility, hence the decision to forward the letters to the Assembly for the Legislators' approval.

After the consideration of the letters, the Speaker of the House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Aminu Iya Abbas referred the 3 letters to the Committee on Finance, Budget and Appropriation headed by Hon. Kate Raymond Mamuno(Demsa) and given 2 weeks to scrutinise it.

Meanwhile, the Lawmakers have approved about 26 copies of the state reviewed 2020 -2022 medium term expenditure framework and fiscal strategy paper.