Senate Rushes To Approve Tinubu’s $6 Billion Loan Request In Single Day

The Senate has approved President Bola Tinubu’s request to secure $6 billion in external borrowing, granting the executive fresh fiscal headroom to cover budget deficits and rehabilitate the nation’s decaying port infrastructure.

The decision, reached on Tuesday after an expedited review by the Committee on Local and Foreign Debts, underscores the administration’s continued reliance on external financing amid widening fiscal pressures.

The approval came just hours after Tinubu formally transmitted two separate borrowing requests to the Senate. In a letter read by Senate President Godswill Akpabio, the President sought legislative backing for a $5 billion facility from Abu Dhabi Bank to support budget deficit financing and meet existing debt obligations. A second letter requested a $1 billion loan from UK Export Finance through Citibank London, designated for the rehabilitation of critical infrastructure at the Lagos Port Complex and Tin Can Island Port.

Following the reading, Akpabio referred the requests to the Committee on Local and Foreign Debts, directing an expedited review. The committee, chaired by Senator Aliyu Wamakko (APC, Sokoto North), submitted its report later the same day, recommending approval, a timeline that reflected the executive’s urgency and the legislature’s alignment with the administration’s fiscal strategy.

The $1 billion component, structured through UK Export Finance, is intended to address what the President described in his letter as “longstanding operational challenges” at Nigeria’s two busiest seaports.Nigerian Politics Book

According to the administration, the rehabilitation project aims to improve efficiency, enhance safety standards, support non-oil trade diversification, and position Nigeria as a regional trade hub.Nigerian Politics Book

The ports, which handle over 70 percent of Nigeria’s non-oil imports, have long suffered from congestion, dilapidated infrastructure, and inefficiencies that impose significant costs on businesses and undermine the country’s competitiveness.

Tuesday’s approval adds to a growing list of borrowing authorizations under the Tinubu administration. Just four months ago, the National Assembly approved a separate request to raise N1.15 trillion from the domestic debt market to fund the 2025 budget deficit, a move that completed the government’s domestic financing plan for the year.

The 2025 Appropriation Act, which now stands at N59.99 trillion after a N5.25 trillion increase from the executive’s initial proposal, has underscored the widening fiscal gap.

Senator Wamakko, presenting the committee’s report, noted that the external loans would be deployed under strict conditionality, with oversight mechanisms to ensure transparency. The committee’s report also highlighted the strategic importance of the port rehabilitation component, describing it as “a critical intervention to reverse decades of underinvestment.”

The approval comes against a backdrop of mounting concerns over Nigeria’s public debt trajectory. As of December 2025, the country’s total public debt stock exceeded N152 trillion, with debt service consuming between 50 and 60 percent of federal revenue, a ratio that economists warn is unsustainable and leaves little room for capital investment.

The administration has defended its borrowing strategy as necessary to address infrastructure deficits and stabilize the economy.

Finance Minister and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, has repeatedly argued that borrowing is a tool for growth when directed toward productive assets, citing the port rehabilitation as an example of expenditure that will generate future returns.

However, opposition lawmakers and civil society groups have raised alarms about the speed and scale of new borrowing.

Senator Ireti Kingibe (LP, FCT) told colleagues during debate that while infrastructure funding was necessary, the Senate must “demand a clear repayment plan and ensure these loans do not become another burden on future generations.”