FG’s $1bn Euro-bond ready by December, says DMO

The Director-General, Debt Management Office, Dr Abraham Nwankwo, has assured that the one billion dollars Euro-bond proposed to be issued by the Federal Government will be ready by mid-December.

He said this on Friday in Abuja at a news conference organised by the Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun.

He said the DMO made requests for proposals for both local and international managers who were interested to compete on Monday, adding that the closing date was Sept. 19.

He said, “Immediately after that, we would fast track the process of vetting, screening and selecting.

“We have a directive to make sure that we use minimum time to conclude all these activities and we are working on that.

“So we assure you that because of the emergency situation, we would be able to cut the time to realise the money to about 20 per cent of the usual time required.

“Preferably, before mid December we will have the money.’’

He said that it was important that the Federal Government was focused on the fact that the money was needed urgently to proffer solutions to turn around the economy.

Nwankwo also said the money would be used for capital projects.

“Every money borrowed in 2016 as far as the Appropriation Bill is concerned would be for capital projects.

“We are following due process to restricted times and we are ensuring that local banks and advisers would be involved so that they learn from the process.

Adeosun on her part, said that the external borrowing plan was approved two weeks ago and that it was very significant to the growth of the economy.

“This is because we said we would borrow the cheapest money first, we have approvals in that plan from the World Bank and the African Development Bank.

“ With interest rates as low as 1.5 per cent and tenure as long as 40 years to intervene in some specific areas.

“These include agriculture, education, health, rebuilding of the North East and the railway projects.’’

The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the sale is the first tranche of a 4.5 billion-dollar Federal Government Medium-Term Note programme to run through 2018.

The aim is to enable Federal Government to have the flexibility of quickly taking advantage of favourable market conditions in the International Capital Market to raise funds, if and only when the need arises.

NAN