By Daniel Tyokua
The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA), said it was considering to borrow the sum of N200 billion to finance road and water projects in the territory.
Mallam Muhammad Bello, the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory disclosed this on Tuesday, during inauguration of a technical committee on the proposed issuance of Sukuk fund for the FCT 2022 statutory budget.
He said the FCT Administration needs the amount to enable its meet up with the desired objective of rehabilitating and expanding some existing roads in the city, and open up more ones to address the frequent logjam on major routes.
The minister explained that the troubling demographic changes have over stretched Abuja’s infrastructure, even as the resources for development became more scarce and unavailable threatening the dreams of the capital’s founding fathers.
Bello stated that the proposed N200 billion loan would complement the N29 billion loan earlier received from the Federal Ministry of Finance through SUKUK funding.
The terms of reference for the 7-man committee include to develop a framework for accessing SUKUK fund by the FCTA in the domestic capital market for financing of infrastructure projects in the FCT.
Others are to review and advise on the procedure and options for obtaining sovereign guarantee for the issuance of SUKUK by the FCTA and prepare the budget estimates for the issuance of sukuk by the FCT and present same for approval.
The committee is also to advise on the appointment of transaction parties and methodologies and advise on the eligibility and packaging of projects identified for funding with the proceeds of SUKUK, among others.
