Nigeria plans $1 billion Eurobond sale to plug budget gap

Nigeria plans to sell as much as $1 billion of Eurobonds to help fund a record budget deficit this year, Finance Minister Kemi Adeogun said a day after it was revealed that the budget deficit could ballon to three trillion naira.

Officials from Africa’s biggest oil producer plan to hold non-deal roadshows to meet investors and explain the government’s policies to revive economic growth, Adeosun said Friday in an interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

“We’re looking at a maximum of $1 billion,” she said. “We need to go out and sell our story, talk to people, talk to the market – and get the best value.”

Prices of oil, on which Nigeria depends for almost all exports and two-thirds of government revenue, have slumped 15 percent this year to a 12-year low of around $30 per barrel. The West African nation’s economy probably grew 3.2 percent last year, the slowest pace since 1999, according to a Bloomberg survey of economists.