Nigeria, Oct. 27 -- The Senate has frowned at a plan by the federal government to borrow $200 million to purchase mosquito nets and other ancillary medical therapies to prevent malaria.

Members of the Senate Committee on Local and Foreign Debts faulted the proposed loan requests when the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Health, Mahmuda Mamman, informed them of the plan.

Mr Mamman told the panel that part of the federal government's plan for the loan is to secure a $200 million facility to procure mosquito nets to prevent malaria in 13 of the 36 states.

This, he said, is due to high rate of under-five mortality in Nigeria largely caused by malaria and inaccessibility to malaria treatments by residents in 13 vulnerable states in th...