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| Okonjo-Iweala |
The Minister of Finance, Mrs. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, said on
Wednesday that Nigeria returned to the capital market after two years of
absence and sold $1 billion dollar bond with ease.
Okonjo-Iweala said this in Abuja while briefing journalists on the
recently concluded road show in Europe and United States to float the
billion dollar bond to international investors.
She said the bonds, which were four times oversubscribed, were
improvements on investors’ response to the $500 million bonds floated in
2011.
“The reason we are excited is because as you know, these are
turbulent times, especially following expectations of tapering of
Qualitative Easing by the U.S Federal Reserve Bank.
“So, the fact that Nigeria could go to the bond market, after waiting
a while and we got four times our subscription, shows confidence in the
strength of the Nigerian economy,’’ the News Agency of Nigeria quoted
the minister as saying at the briefing.
Okonjo- Iweala said the transaction attracted top investors primarily from US, Europe and Asia.
“ The demand was such that we couldn’t meet all of them. Over 200
investors could not get any share of the bonds because we were
oversubscribed,’’ she added.
The minister said the $1 billion bond was offered in two categories at the international capital market.
She said that $500 million was offered as a five-year bond at 5.125
per cent interest rate, while the other $500 million was offered as a
10-year bond at 6.375 per cent interest rate.
She added that the two-category offer gave Nigeria the opportunity to achieve an overall cheaper cost of borrowing.
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