By Dipo Olowookere
Arrangements have been concluded by the Lagos State government to enter the capital market to source for N60 billion.
Commissioner for Finance in the state, Mr Akinyemi Ashade, disclosed at a combined Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the state bond series and rating programme at the weekend that the money would be sourced for this week.
Mr Ashade noted that the floating of the N60 billion bond is from its pool of N500 billion approved by the state House of Assembly recently.
According to him, in 2017, the state would further seek another tranche of N100 billion, saying the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) had already concluded the verification of projects that the fund would be used for.
“SEC is already in the state, checking some of those projects to authenticate them. They finished their inspection on Friday and we hope that their report would go in by next week, so that we can open,” he said at the meeting.
Mr Ashade revealed that the bond series, which the state government started in 2008, has had tremendous impact on the socio-economic development in the state and positively affected the lives of the people.
He explained that Lagos, being the fifth largest economy in Africa, needs to do deficit financing of the execution of some of its infrastructure necessities to fast-track the execution of projects and give residents the best.
