NASS approves $1 bln Eurobond sale as investors worry over oil, FX risk

Nigeria’s parliament has approved the government’s request to sell a $1 billion Eurobond to help the country finance its budget deficit, Reuters reports.

Nigeria is suffering its first recession in 25 years and needs to find money to make up for shortfall in its budget. Its revenues have plunged along with global oil prices and militant attacks in its crude-producing heartland, the Niger Delta. Finance Minister Kemi Adeosun, Central Bank Governor Godwin Emefiele and other senior government officials have been meeting investors this week in London and the United States on a roadshow to issue the bond with a 15-year maturity.

Adeosun said in October that Africa’s biggest economy had commitments for half the amount it wanted to raise from the Eurobond, to be issued in dollars. However, a source with knowledge of the investor meetings, organised by Citigroup and Standard Chartered Bank, told Reuters that oil production and currency were the two main issues investors were considering in pricing the bond this week. Investors also asked about the continuity of government policies in the absence of President Muhammadu Buhari, who is in Britain on medical leave.