Nigerian govt to hold roadshow in Lagos, New York to raise $3bn loan

The federal government has set October 11, as the date to shop for new creditors to help finance the 2021 budget deficit.

This is according to reports from Reuters on Monday, which quoted the Minister of finance Zainab Ahmed as saying the country will hold roadshows in Lagos and New York to raise roughly $3 billion through the issuance of Eurobond.

Eurobonds are debt instruments aimed at raising funds externally. It is expressed in terms of U.S. dollars or other currencies.

“We have an approval in the 2021 budget to fund the budget deficit 50% locally and 50% externally,” Ahmed said

“We are planning to do about half of that in eurobonds and the other half through other windows such as multilateral and bilateral sources.”

READ ALSO: Finance Minister, Ahmed, appears before Reps over 2021 budget implementation

Recall that the National assembly in July approved an external borrowing plan of $6.2 billion through Eurobond.

The decision was immediately followed with the appointment of Transaction Advisers by Debt Management Office (DMO).

The advisers include JP Morgan, Citigroup Global Markets Limited, Standard Chartered Bank and Goldman Sachs would act as International Bookrunners/Joint Lead Managers; while Chapel Hill Denham Advisory Services Ltd would act as Nigerian Bookrunner.

FSDH Merchant Bank Ltd was named Financial Adviser; White & Case LLP as International Legal Adviser ; and Banwo & Ighodalo, as Nigerian Legal Adviser.

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.

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