FG To Apply For $1 Billion Loan From World Bank

According to Bloomberg, the process federal government plans to apply for a $1 billion loan from the World Bank will commence as soon as the Nigerian Senate approve this year’s budget.

“We are about to embark on the roadshow for the dollar bond”, Mrs Kemi Adeosun told Bloomberg.

Adeosun had previously told the Nigerian media that the federal government wants to raise $1 billion in what would be Nigeria’s first Eurobond since 2013.

The government hired Citigroup Inc. and Standard Chartered Bank Plc to organize the roadshow in the United States and London from Friday, February 3.

The notes and the World Bank loan will help plug a fiscal deficit forecast by the government to be 2.36 trillion naira ($7.5 billion) this year, Adeosun said separately to reporters.

Nigeria sought about $4.5 billion of external funding last year, but only managed to borrow $600 million from the African Development Bank, which will be used for power generation, roads, railways and ports.

The government has struggled to obtain more financing as foreign investors and the IMF have criticized its currency policies, which they say have left the naira overvalued and led to a severe shortage of the foreign-exchange businesses need to import raw materials and equipment.

The yield on Nigeria’s $500 million Eurobond due in July 2023 snapped six days of increases to decline by 1 basis point, to 6.89 percent, by 8:41 a.m. in London.