By Modupe Gbadeyanka
The planned issuance of $2.5 billion by the Nigerian government would be used to refinance some maturing treasury bills worth N762.5 billion.
This disclosure was made by the Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun, on Wednesday after the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting in Abuja.
Briefing newsmen on outcome of the meeting presided over by Mr President Muhammadu Buhari, the Minister said government plans to use proceeds from the exercise to lower its borrowing costs.
Recall that government had used proceeds of its bond issuance in November 2017 to redeem N198 billion worth of treasury bills in December 2017.
It was observed that the NTBs dropped from about 16 percent to 13 percent, while the bonds dropped from about 16 to 16.50 percent to 13.50 percent.
Last month, the Debt Management Office (DMO) revealed plans by government to issue $2.5 billion Eurobond before the end of this quarter to refinance a portion of its domestic treasury bill portfolio at lower cost.
Meanwhile, the Federal Executive Council has reappointed a consortium of banks to handle the $2.5 billion Eurobond issuance.
According to Mrs Adeosun, the banks are Citi Group, Standard Chartered, Stanbic IBTC, Whitten-Case and African Practice.
Adedapo Adesanya