DMO sensitises on N100b bond for budget deficit, major road projects

The Debt Management Office (DMO) has begun moves towards the floating of the much-awaited N100 billion non-interest bond popularly known as Sukuk.

In this respect, a national roadshow, led by the Director-General, Patience Oniha, commences today in Abuja to sensitise local and institutional investors to features and benefits of the sovereign bond.

The exercise, which would go round other major cities like Kano, Kaduna, Lagos and Port Harcourt, is being staged in collaboration with its financial advisers, Lotus Capital Financial Services Limited and FBN Merchant Bank Plc.
 

Apart from serving as an alternative source of funding for the Federal Government, the bond is also meant to diversify the investor base for FGN securities, promote financial inclusion and deepen the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE).
 
Proceeds, according to the DMO, would be used to finance specific road projects. Sukuks are non-debt instruments that represent ownership in a tangible asset, service, project, business or joint venture.

“This is why Sukuk fits into the DMO debt strategy of borrowing to finance capital projects contained in the budget. “This ensures that government borrowings are used to finance development projects which have multiple economic and social benefits for the citizens,” Oniha, was quoted as saying in a statement.
 
With a tenor of seven years, the debut financial instrument has been certified as ethically compliant by the Financial Regulation Advisory Council of Experts of the Central Bank of Nigeria.
 
Some of its benefits, according the DMO, include “safety and regular income that are-tax free and liquidity, as they will be listed and traded on the NSE and FMDQ OTC Securities Exchange Plc.”

The product, which is also useful as collateral to access loans from banks, would be subscribed to a week after the roadshow and its advertisement in major newspapers. For wide access, the minimum investment outlay has been fixed at N10,000.