Report: Nigeria Eyes $1bn External Borrowing, Plans To Issue Eurobonds By June

Nigeria has hired investment banks including Citibank NA, JPMorgan Chase & Co., and Goldman Sachs, to seek advice on its first Eurobond issue since 2022.

A Bloomberg report on Wednesday, noted that the size of the Eurobond offer, which was expected before June, was yet to be determined.

The federal government could raise as much as $1 billion in external borrowing this year to meet its spending needs, according to sources who spoke to the publication.

The report said Nigeria has also hired Standard Chartered Bank and Lagos-based Chapel Hill Denham as advisers.

On January 1, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu signed the N28.7 trillion budget for 2024 fiscal year, with a deficit of N9.8 trillion — which would be financed by borrowings from local and international investors and multilateral lenders.

Tinubu had also received approval from the Senate on December 30, 2023, to borrow the sums of $7.8 billion and €100 million as part of the 2022-2024 borrowing plan of the federal government.

The president had sent a request to the National Assembly to approve the sum, saying the funds, when obtained, would be used to assuage the economic realities and undertake many projects cutting across various sectors of the economy.

Meanwhile, since he took office on May 29, 2023, Tinubu has been seeking to attract foreign investors back into the economy through several reforms.

Last year, on June 14, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) announced the unification of all segments of the foreign exchange (FX) market.

Emmanuel Addeh 

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