* Faults $100m borrowing plan to contain COVID-19
The Senate, on Tuesday, rejected the proposal by the Ministry of Health to procure mosquito nets with $200 million under its malaria programme in the 2022 budget.
Members of the Senate Committee on Local and Foreign Debt expressed concern over what they called outrageous budget when top officers of the ministry appeared before the committee for budget defence on Tuesday.
Senator Gershom Bassey told the Permanent Secretary of the ministry, Mahmuda Mamman, that the proposed expenditure is outrageous.
The Executive Director, National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Dr Faisal Shuaib, said the $200 million is for importation and local production of mosquito nets, adding that the World Bank mandated Nigeria to buy it from specific producer.
He further explained that the money is meant for 13 vulnerable states across the country.
Chairman of the Committee on Health, Senator Ibrahim Oloriegbe, who doubles as a member of the committee on local and foreign debt, faulted the proposal, and dismissed it as a misplaced priority.
Oloriegbe told the officials of the ministry that it is not acceptable that the World Bank would dictate to Nigeria where to buy mosquito nets.
“They can’t borrow us money and still tell us where to buy the mosquito nets. This can be source locally,” he said.
Oloriegbe requested for all documents related to $200 million loan from World Bank for the malaria medicine and mosquito nets.
He added that “we know that we have challenges, but that does not mean we should borrow for malaria medicine.”
The committee also kicked against the $100 million external borrowing plan to contain Coronavirus, as submitted by the erstwhile Director-General, Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu.