The Debt Management Office (DMO) will hold its second Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) Securities Awareness Programme on Thursday in Enugu.
A statement by the Director-General of the DMO, Patience Oniha, said that the programme was in collaboration with CSL Stockbrokers Limited, which is the stockbroker of the FGN.
Oniha said that it was mainly targeted at retail investors, to create awareness about the various financial offerings and investment opportunities of the Federal Government amongst the Nigerian public.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the DMO held its inaugural securities awareness programme in Lagos last Thursday.
Oniha had said that the aim was to sell the various existing Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) securities to the Nigerian public.
She said that the objective was to ensure that many more Nigerians became aware of the huge investment opportunities and take advantage of them.
“The purpose is to introduce DMO to the people because the Nigerian people are a very important set of stakeholders we must engage.
“Also, we have to educate the general public about the various products that we offer.
“We are talking of investment products similar to shares, but this is the other side of shares.
“The needs of the government are growing and becoming different, so, we need to get more stakeholders involved in what we are doing,” she said.
Oniha said that the idea of getting more Nigerians to invest in government securities was to also promote and encourage financial inclusion.
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“It is good to keep bank accounts, but it is also good to get actively involved in the financial market, either by buying shares or bonds,” she said.
According to her, the various FGN securities constitute the local component of government borrowings which go into providing for some critical needs of the citizens.
“One of our objectives is to prove our ability to raise the funds that the government will use to fund these projects that will benefit all of us.
“We will like you to support us by subscribing to our products so that we can transfer the funds to the government, ” she said.
She said that the DMO was saddled with the responsibility of managing public debt, which also involved borrowing.
“While managing the public debt, we also want to ensure that it is sustainable, so, there are some World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) tools that we use.
“We have a range of products like the FGN Bond, the Nigeria Treasury Bills, FGN Savings Bond, the Sovereign Sukuk and the Green Bond, ” she said.
She said that the FGN savings bond was deliberately designed for the retail investors to benefit while supporting the government to raise funds and also supporting the development of the financial market.
Also, Kayode Olayemi, the head, of business development, CSL Stockbrokers Limited, said that it had become increasingly imperative to create awareness about government securities among retail investors.
Olayemi said that ordinary Nigerians also deserved the opportunity to invest and benefit from the huge opportunities in FGN bonds.
He said that the FGN securities served as a benchmark for other private institutions to be able to issue their own debt securities.
“Government securities also enhance the saving and investment opportunities of the populace, thereby, promoting financial inclusion, ” he said.
