Nigeria has more than $5.83bn foreign loans that have been approved but not yet disbursed, the Debt Management Office has said.

The DMO on its portal on Sunday listed a number of foreign loans that were to be disbursed as of December 31, 2020.

The disbursement of the loans will take the country’s total foreign debt commitment to more than $37.8bn.

Our correspondent reports that the country’s external debt as of September 30, 2020 stood at $31.99bn.

A table provided by the DMO titled ‘External loans signed but yet disbursed as at December 31, 2020’ showed that a larger percentage of the loans would come from the International Development Association, a member of World Bank Group.

The outstanding loans from the group stands at about $3.27bn.

Another $1.25bn is supposed to come from the Export-Import Bank of China. Apart from multilateral agencies, China has remained the nation’s largest creditor.

Other major sources of the undisbursed funds include Agence Francaise de Development from where the country will get more than 500 million Euros and the European Development Fund from where the country will collect about $425m.

The DMO also listed the projects and agencies that would benefit from the undisbursed funds.

These include Nigerian Supply of Rolling Stock and Depot Equipment for Abuja Light Rail Project, the Nigerian Greater Abuja Water Supply Project, Nigerian National Information Communication Technology Infrastructure Backbone Phase II Project; Four Airport Terminals Expansion Incremental Project, the Nigerian Four Airport Terminals Expansion Ancillary Project.

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Others are Nigerian 40 Parboiled Rice Processing Plants Project, Say No to Famine of Nigeria, Nigeria Transmission Expansion Project Phase I (NTEP-1), Nigeria Transmission Expansion Project Phase I (NTEP-1) (AGTF); Second Africa Higher Education Centers of Excellence for Development Impact (ACE 3) Project; Rural Access and Agricultural Marketing Project; the Northern Corridor Power Transmission Project; and the Enhancing Vocational Training Delivery for the Power Sector in Nigeria.

The list also includes the Northern Core Dorsal Nord Regional Power Interconnector Project; the Ogun State Economic Transformation Project; the Innovation Development and Effectiveness in the Acquisition of Skills Project; the Immunisation Plus & Malaria Progress by Accelerating Coverage and Transforming Service; the Sustainable Procurement, Environmental and Social Standards Enhancement Project; the Power Sector Recovery Programme for Results Project; the Second Africa Higher Education Centers of Excellence for Development Impact Project and the Rural Access and Agricultural Marketing Project.

The Multi-Sectoral Crisis Recovery Programme for Lake Chad Recovery and Development (PROLAC) – Additional Financing; the Nigeria Covid-19 Preparedness and Response Project; the Edo State Basic Education Sector and Skills Transformation Operations; the Adolescent Girls Initiative for Learning and Empowerment Programme (AGILE) Project; the Nigeria Digital Identification for Development Project; the Nigeria Digital Identification for Development Project; and the Nigeria Climate Adaptation Erosion and Watershed Project were also listed among the beneficiary projects.

The DMO did not state why the funds had not been disbursed. However, some of the lending agencies disburse funds as agreed milestones or conditions are reached.