Dipo Olowookere
By Dipo Olowookere
The sale of $1 billion Eurobond by the Federal Government to raise funds for capital projects and for 2016 budget deficit seems to have been oversubscribed.
According to reports, the $1 billion 15 year tenure Eurobond was oversubscribed by as much as 7 folds.
Senior government officials led by the Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele, travelled to the United States and the United Kingdom to woo investors to subscribe to the bonds.
It was gathered that the exercise has been completed and feelers indicate it was highly successful.
According to reports, demand for Nigeria’s Eurobond was as high as $7.9 billion of orders for a $1 billion 15 year issue; showing that it was oversubscribed by at least $6.9 billion.
However, there are still concerns over the potential use of the proceeds, as it may be spent supporting recurrent expenditure, or supporting the Naira.
Nigeria has been struggling to get out of recession especially with the scarcity of Dollar that has weakened the Naira at the foreign exchange market.
The local currency was sold for N500 on Monday and there were fears it could go higher in few days’ time.
Many have criticised the forex policy of the CBN under Mr Emefiele.
