The 10-year bond is aimed at helping fund a widening budget
deficit in sub-Saharan Africa’s second-biggest economy and at setting a
benchmark for Nigeria in the international capital markets for both corporate
and government debt.
“I met some investors last month who said you should do $1
billion. There is appetite,” Aganga told a conference in London.
“We are in the process of appointing book runners,” he said.
The head of the Debt Management Office told Reuters on
Tuesday that a consortium of international and local legal and financial
advisers had been selected for the planned issue, which has been repeatedly
delayed. Not all analysts shared Aganga’s optimism about the likely level of
interest in the bond, noting that elections due in January, high government
spending and lower foreign exchange reserves were increasing the uncertainty
for investors.
“I think he is over-optimistic if he believes there will be
strong demand for a bond two to three months before a presidential election,
with reserves at a 4-1/2 year low and the Excess Crude Account depleted,”
Knight Libertas analyst Richard Segal told Reuters.
Nigeria’s parliament has approved spending of more than 4.8
trillion naira ($32 billion) this year, up more than 50 percent on last year,
meaning the country’s budget deficit is set to widen to more than 5 pct of GDP.
The monthly disbursal of oil revenues and windfall savings
to the three tiers of government reached a new peak in July.
The sharing left Nigeria’s excess crude account, into which
the OPEC member is meant to save windfall oil savings, with just $460 million
compared to $20 billion at the beginning of the current presidential term in
2007.
Nigeria’s forex reserves rose 3 percent to $38.2 billion by
mid-August from the end of July, although they have fallen from around $43.3
billion a year ago due to demand pressure from importers and a reduction in
accruals from oil exports.
The central bank has said the current level could
nonetheless finance more than 17 months of import bills in sub-Saharan Africa’s
second-biggest economy.
Aganga said Nigeria was on track to achieve GDP growth of at
least 7 percent this year after its economy grew by 7.4 percent in the first
half. He said 10 percent growth by the end of next year was “doable.”
