The Nigerian Senate has approved President Bola Tinubu ‘s loan request of $500 million for the Bureau of Public Enterprises, BPE, for electricity metering program to improve financial and technical performance of electricity distribution companies, DisCos.

The approval was sequel to the consideration of report of the Senate Committee on Local and Foreign Debts 2022 – 2024 External Borrowing (Rolling) Plan for the BPE.

Vice Chairman of the committee, Senator Haruna Manu, PDP Taraba Central, presenting the report, stated:

“The Senate do approve the sum of $500,000,000 (Five Hundred Million United States Dollars) in the ongoing negotiation of external borrowing for the Bureau of Public Enterprise, BPE.

“The $500 million loan is part of the $7.94 billion loan which President Bola Tinubu sought the Senate’s approval for on November 1, 2023, under the 2022-2024 external borrowing plan. The President also sought approval for €100 million.

”However, the Senate gave the approval to borrow $7.4 billion approved during its special plenary December 30 after considering the report of the Committee on local and foreign debt.”