[$1 Billion Eurobond Sale] Nigeria Approach China Exim Bank, World Bank and AfDB

Talks are currently ongoing with the Export-Import Bank of China alongside discussions with the World Bank for a $2.5 billion loan and for $1 billion of funding from the African Development Bank, Finance Minister Kemi Adeosun has said.

In a telephone conversation with Bloomberg, the minister denied that it has shelved a planned Eurobond sale for as much as $1 billion to plug its fiscal deficit and will start meeting investors next month.

Responding to report from Reuters that a deal had been scrapped, Mrs. Adeosun said:

“The Eurobond is still very much on,” adding that a non-deal roadshow “should be starting early next month” and the finance ministry is in the process of choosing banks to arrange it.

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Nigeria plans to raise about $5 billion of external debt this year to help cover a budget deficit that may be as high as $15 billion. The government also intends to raise about the same amount from local debt markets.

The country has relied on oil for about two-thirds of government revenue but has seen its finances battered by Brent crude prices falling to 12-year lows of around $30 a barrel.

According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Nigeria’s economic growth slowed to 3 percent last year, the slowest pace since 1999.