The Nigerian government is set to raise roughly $3 billion through the launch of it’s planned Eurobond on October 11, with Lagos, New York roadshows.
October 11 is the date set by the government to shop for new creditors to help finance the 2021 budget deficit.
Eurobonds are debt instruments aimed at raising funds externally. It is expressed in terms of US dollars or other currencies.
According to the minister of finance, Zainab Ahmed on Monday, Nigeria would hold roadshows for the dollar-denominated issuance, which aims to raise roughly $3 billion, in Lagos and New York.
The government is also targeting raising the same amount via multilateral and bilateral borrowing to fund its 2021 budget deficit.
The minister said, “We have an approval in the 2021 budget to fund the budget deficit 50% locally and 50% externally.
“We are planning to do about half of that in eurobonds and the other half through other windows such as multilateral and bilateral sources.”
Parliament in July approved external borrowing of roughly $6.2 billion.
Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy, is struggling to boost growth after exiting its second recession since 2016 in the fourth quarter of last year. Its incoming statistician-general has said the nation is targeting gross domestic product growth above 5% for 2021.
The country’s economy grew 5.01% in the second quarter, according to statistics released last week, as an easing of COVID-19 lockdown measures and an increase in vaccinations boosted commercial activities.
However, persistently high inflation has dogged the nation.
Nigeria’s cumulative public debt as of the end of March 2021 stood at $87.239 billion (N33.1 trillion).
External debt alone stands at $32.8billion with Eurobond contributing $10.66 billion.
Omotayo Araoye
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