The Federal Government said yesterday it planned to float a Diaspora Bond to attract funds held abroad by Nigerians at home and in the Diaspora.
The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy Mr. Wale Edun disclosed this, yesterday, at his wrap up media briefing at the end of the 2024 Spring Meetings of the IMF and World Bank.
His words, “In terms of remittances, it is certainly one of the ways we can increase supply of foreign exchange and investment in the country.
“There are Nigerians abroad who are doing very well. Even Nigerians in Nigeria with funds abroad that can be counted as remittance and in order to increase the supply of foreign exchange into the economy, government is looking at attracting those funds through a Diaspora kind of instrument.
“A Diaspora Bond and we think that will be attractive enough for Nigerians abroad and for foreign holdings of foreign currencies and look to having a substantial issue later in the year.”
As part of the efforts of the administration to increase foreign exchange inflows, the minister said that that Nigeria has qualified for the processing of a $2.25 billion World Bank facility.
According to him, “Nigeria has qualified for the processing of a total package of World Bank $2.25 billion of, well there is no free money but it is close to a grant for 40 years, moratorium of 10 years and about 1 percent interest. So that is also part of the flow that you can count.
“In addition, there is a similar Budgetary Support, low-interest funding from the African Development Bank and clearly, there are also on-going discussions with foreign direct investors.
“Some of these things take longer than you expect but there are relatively advanced discussions on major foreign direct investment inflows into the country, specific transactions with companies, institutions and authorities”
The Minister said that the Spring Meetings presented an opportunity to engage the international audience on a global stage.
His words, “We have had the opportunity of speaking to international investors, portfolio investors and those international direct investors that will bring what I will describe as quality funding. The kind of funding that builds factories and creates jobs.
“The response from all of them, I can say, without exception is that of greater confidence in the economic management of the country and greater interest and willingness to invest.
“But in addition, not just the international community that we addressed, it is also critical that we are a private sector-driven economy and that is the policy of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to encourage private domestic and foreign investment to grow the economy and increase, create jobs and reduce poverty.
“But also we have other partners- the multilateral organisations, development banks, bilateral financiers, grant-givers, foundations such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and others. The whole eco-system of international finance, we have engaged with all of them.
“We have come away with funding to provide electricity to 300 million people in Africa that the largest portion will come to Nigeria. And you know what the provision of electricity does to increasing productivity and reduce poverty.
“We can also say that we have a bigger say for Africa through an additional Chair on the Board of Directors of the International Monetary Fund. I think it is a major success for Africa as a whole.”
Tacking debt with higher revenue
On debt challenges, he said that revenue remained the only way out and that for Nigeria, the first source of revenue was oil.
The Minister said that oil production has increased from 1.2 million bpd to 1.6 million bpd since President Tinubu came to power.
He said that with a 2 million bpd quota from the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), the administration was looking to ramping production to 2 million, including 300, 000 barrels of condensate.
Cardoso sets up task force to facilitate inflows
The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Mr.Olayemi Cardoso disclosed that a task force has been set up to ease the flow of remittances into the country.
His words, “It has indeed been a fruitful few days of engaging with our esteemed international policy counterparts and stakeholders from around the world, as well as Nigeria’s investors. We came here with a very clear agenda and have held highly significant, intentional meetings – each one with an objective to further support the stability and ultimate growth of the Nigerian economy.
