By Modupe Gbadeyanka
A letter has been sent to the National Assembly by the Acting President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo, seeking an approval for the issuance of $500 million Eurobond in the international capital market for the funding of 2016 budget deficit.
“Following the high oversubscription of $1 billion Eurobond issuance, we wish to take advantage of favourable market conditions to issue a Eurobond debt instrument of $5OO million,” the letter said in part.
The Acting President, in the letter to Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr Yakubu Dogara, explained that proceeds of the Eurobond would be used to execute some capital projects as specified in the 2016 Appropriation Act, “which is ongoing.”
According to the Acting President, “Given that the implementation of the 2016 budget is still ongoing, we plan to issue the Eurobond between February and March 2017, subject to market conditions.”
He said further in the letter that, ““This is in order to meet the governments approved capital expenditure funding plan.”
Mr Osinbajo noted that, “While the approved domestic borrowing had been fully incurred, the N635.877 billion external borrowing has not been fully accessed.”
“The external borrowing incurred to date consists of $600 million from the African Development Bank (AfDB) and $1 billion Eurobond from the international capital market only,” he added.
Adedapo Adesanya