State govts raise bonds worth N600bn in 10 years— DMO

The Debt Management Office (DMO) says state governments have been issued bonds worth over N600 billion to fund infrastructure development in the past 10 years.

Statistics released by Dr Abraham Nwankwo, DMO Director-General, in Lagos and obtained by newsmen said that the amount was raised between 2005 and 2014.

Nwankwo said that the N600 billion was used by the state governments to refinance existing loans.

He said that Nigerian corporate institutions, following the development of domestic bond market between 2005 and 2014 had issued debt instruments worth N223 billion.

“Following the development of domestic bond market between 2005 and 2014 Nigerian corporate institutions have issued debt instruments of about N223 billion, thereby contributing to the development of the real sector,” Nwankwo said.

He said the market also attracted supranational issuers of debt securities such as the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group and Africa Development Bank.

The director-general said that enviable achievements recorded in the development of the Federal Government’s Bonds Market earned international recognitions for the FGN bond market.

Nwankwo said the achievements included an active secondary market, creation of sovereign yield curve with tenure of up to 20 years and diversification of the investor base for fixed income securities.

He said the achievements recorded in the development of the domestic debt management led to the endorsement of the FGN bond market by reputable international financial institutions.

He said these recognitions were the inclusion of FGN bonds in the widely used JP Morgan’s Government Bond Index-Emerging Markets (GBI-EM) and Barclays Capital’s Emerging Markets-Local Currency Government Bond Index (EM-LCBI) in October 2012 and March 2013.

He said that the development led to significant in flow of foreign portfolio investments in the country.

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