The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed has disclosed the intention of the Federal Government to secure a $1.2bn loan from Brazil.
To that end, it has transmitted a request for approval to the National Assembly, noting that the loan will be used to finance agricultural programmes in the 2021 budget.
Ms Ahmed made these disclosures while defending the budget proposed by her ministry before House of Representatives Committee on Finance in Abuja on Tuesday.
“For borrowing to improve the industry, we are before the parliament. I request for your approval for loan that we call the Green Imperative Programme which is for loan of $1.2bn from the Brazilian government.
“It is a programme that is addressing the whole of the agricultural value chain from mechanisation, production, processing and selling. It is meant to lend to businessmen for tractors, plants at all levels,” she said.
The minister who further disclosed that the Federal Government would acquire 100,000 hectares of land in each state for food production, added that link roads would be built in such locations to provide access for farmers to move farm produce to markets and reduce post-harvest losses.
She further told the committee that the Federal Government might forward a supplementary budget to the National Assembly to provide for new salaries in the ongoing reform of the Nigeria Police Force.
