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Osun State Governor
Rauf Aregbesola has told the Osun State House of Assembly that he plans
to access a N25 billion credit line. The governor, in a letter dated
February 14, said he is seeking the approval of the parliament to
access the credit line to refinance the N18.3 billion loan that was
borrowed by the immediate past administration. The letter was read on
behalf of the speaker by the deputy speaker, Ropo Oyewole. Mr.
Aregbesola explained that after the loan was refinanced, “the amount
that will be available to government for spending will be N16.79
billion which will be utilized to execute the capital projects
highlighted in annex I to this letter”.

Debt legacy

Capital projects to
be funded from the facility, according to the governor’s letter,
include: provision of educational infrastructure, renewal of the urban
centers, construction/rehabilitation of rural roads, mass food
production, development of health facilities and provision of other
social infrastructure. Mr. Aregbesola also explained in the
correspondence to the House that with a monthly repayment of
N615,994,629.28, his administration could hardly execute any of its own
developmental programmes if the existing loan was not restructured. The
letter stated that out of the N18.3 billion, the former administration
was only able to pay N2.473 billion while the present administration
had paid two months’ instalments of N615million, thus leaving a debit
of N15.711 billion at January 31, 2011.