Bond market Nigeria - Foreign investors show interest in Bond Market. Following the successful issuance of Nigeria's debut Sovereign Bond and desirous of taking advantage of investment opportunities in Nigeria, foreign investors, banks and fund managers are seeking presentation from the Debt Management Office during the World Bank Annual General Meeting in Washington DC.

The DMO is also being requested to make presentation to an investment forum where other African countries, namely, Ghana, Tanzania, Cameroon, Kenya and Gabon, would be participating and learning the success story of Nigeria's Sovereign bond issue.

A schedule of the proposed meetings, as requested by the investors, show that the DMO would be making presentations to Citibank, BNP Paribas, Bank of America, Merrill Lynch, Deutsche Bank, Credit Suisse, Standard Chartered Bank as well as Exotics plus six other group of investors.

The presentations would be made between September 22 and 25 in Washington DC.

In one of the letters dated September 13 addressed to the Director General of the DMO, Dr. Abraham Nwankwo, the Citibank's Managing Director, Public Sector Group, Africa, requested the DMO to address the bank and "a group of approximately 12-15 investors during the upcoming World Bank AGM in Washington DC this month".

Recognising that Nigeria has a positive story to tell since its debut bond issue, Citibank said that DMO is expected "to give details about Nigeria, including macro-economic trends on the country, and in particular the most recent trends and changes which had occurred, since Nigeria issued its debut bond in January this year."

According to Citibank, "It is heartening to note that Nigeria has a positive story to tell since its debut bond issue. The elections proceeded smoothly and were widely adjudged to be relatively free and fair by the international community.

The new administration under President Dr. Goodluck Jonathan has been sworn in, with a strong Economic Management Team under the ex-Managing Director of the World Bank, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo Iweala".

It continued, "Furthermore, with strong oil prices, production back to over 2 million barrels per day, inflation down to single digits, there are several positive trends within the economy. Nigeria's Sovereign Bond has responded well, currently trading at historic low yields despite recent market volatility."

It would be recalled that, in January, this year, the DMO issued $500million Eurobond which was oversubscribed by global investors as a demonstration of their confidence in the Nigerian economy. Forecasting a rise in foreign investment into Nigeria, the Minister of Trade and Investment, Olusegun Aganga, had observed, "This single transaction clearly puts Nigeria on the global map. We now have a transparent and internationally observable benchmark against which international investors can accurately price.

James Emejo

This Day/26/09/2011