The Niger State House of Assembly has clarified that it did not approve a $14.4 million loan request from Governor Mohammed Umar Bago, following public criticism and media reports suggesting the state was seeking fresh borrowing.
Speaker Abdulmalik Sarkin-Daji explained during plenary that the governor’s correspondence only sought legislative approval for a bank guarantee in favour of the United Bank for Africa.
The guarantee was tied to a financing arrangement under the Saudi EXIM Line of Credit for Niger Foods Security Systems and Logistics Company.
According to the Speaker, the facility valued at $14,445,007.06 has a tenure of 84 months with an 18-month moratorium.
However, he stressed that the Assembly had merely received and read the correspondence, and had neither debated nor approved the request.
In a statement issued by his media aide, Ruqayyah Tanko, Sarkin-Daji emphasized that the arrangement was not a loan for the Niger State Government but a guarantee for Niger Foods,
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