Haruna Iddrisu, the minority leader in parliament, has stated that just $750 million of the $1 billion syndicated loan arrangement the government has brought to the House is acceptable to his party.
He stated that this is contingent on the agreement’s pertinent facts being provided.
The Tamale South MP highlighted in an interview with JoyNews on Tuesday that while the administration urgently requires the credit facility, more information about the arrangement is required before the Minority Group can agree to its approval.
“If they provide further and better details on the $750m, we are open and amenable to getting that approved as soon as practicable,” he said. “I know that they are in dying need of resources for our import cover.”
He claims that because the Minority believes the terms of the agreement to be “unacceptable,” the Finance Ministry must withdraw the remaining $250 million loan agreement and renegotiate it.
“We do not feel the $250 million request to be reasonable. How are you able to borrow $250 million, of which $43 million is used to pay for premiums or insurance? We do not find the terms acceptable, so we have requested the Ministry of Finance to renegotiate,” he continued.
“The Finance Minister simply mentioned budget support in the memo he provided to Parliament. Therefore, we needed to know which budgetary areas that money would help. Is it the transportation, health, or education sectors, or are there other societal interventions at play? We must understand,” he said.
To decide how to proceed with the loan deal, the Parliament’s Finance Committee is scheduled to meet on Tuesday.
In order to finance Capital and Growth-related expenditures in the 2022 Budget, the Finance Ministry is asking Parliament’s permission for a 750 million loan facility agreement between AfreximBank and a 250 million loan agreement from a syndication of banks.
The Minority rejected the loan agreement when it was presented to the House last Friday. The facility was dubbed “awful” and “inimical” by them.
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