By Dipo Olowookere
Director General of the Debt Management Office (DMO), Ms Patience Oniha, on Friday disclosed that another Green Bond would be issued to fund some capital projects in the 2018 budget signed into law recently by President Muhammadu Buhari.
However, the debt office chief did not disclose when this exercise would be carried or how much would be raised from the offering.
“It should be for the borrowing of this year, we can’t give you a figure. We have already asked the federal ministry of environment to work towards it,” Ms Oniha said at the listing ceremony of the pioneer FGN N10.69 billion Green Bond on FMDQ OTC Securities Exchange in Lagos.
The DG disclosed at the ceremony that funds from the N10.69 billion Green Bond and the subsequent ones would be for specified projects from the appropriation act like the Sukuk bond.
“The project will be very specific, and would already have been listed in the budget. So what is required is for them to be part of the budget and to be qualified for green bond financing,” she said further.
Green bonds are fixed income, liquid financial instruments used to raise funds dedicated to climate mitigation, adaption and other environment-friendly projects.
They provide investors with an attractive investment proposition and an opportunity to support environmentally and socially sound projects.
Adedapo Adesanya