ABUJA – The Debt Management Office (DMO) said it had mobilised funds through bonds in domestic and international markets to enhance infrastructure development in Nigeria.
Director-General of the office, Dr Abraham Nwankwo, made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday in Abuja.
Nwankwo, who declined to disclose the amount realized from bonds placements, said that DMO raised funds for projects, including the dualisation of Airport Road in Abuja and the Abuja-Kubwa road.
He said that funding of development of new districts in Abuja, the revitalization and modernization of the railways through the procurement of new locomotives also came for proceeds from bonds.
“In the foreign fronts, the borrowings we do from the external sector are used for various infrastructural projects like building dams for power projects,” he added.
According to him, the one billion dollar bond issued in the international market in 2013 was part of effort to support infrastructure development in the country.
Nwankwo said that greater part of the proceeds from the foreign bonds placements were deployed to power transmission projects by Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), gas-to-power pipeline project and bulk purchases.[eap_ad_2]
On “Sukuk” bond, which is the Islamic equivalent of ordinary bonds, he said that DMO, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) were collaborating on a framework for introducing it in the Nigerian market.
“The whole idea is that there are categories of investors and servers who do not want to participate in interest-bearing financial products.
“They prefer other forms of investment that do not generate interest, such as leasing, profit sharing, joint venture and other forms of investment arrangement.
“ So, it is important that in the Nigerian system, we should introduce such system that are not interest-bearing so that it will lead to more financial inclusiveness in the system,’’ he explained.
He said that Sukuk bond would open avenue for more people to be involved in the growth and development of the economy.
He said that the idea was to take advantage of that product to make sure that the base for financial investors was broadened by capturing the segment of economic participants that did not want to participate in interest-bearing products. (NAN)[eap_ad_3]
