Buhari in China to borrow ‘cheapest money’ to finance 2016 Budget deficits – Kemi Adeosun

The Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun has revealed the reason behind President Muhammadu Buhari’s trip to China. According to Adeosun, the President’s visit to China was aimed at building a stronger ties with the Asian country and to “borrow the cheapest money possible” to finance the 2016 budget deficit. Speaking with Financial Times and Reuters, the Minister said the country was
considering selling a Chinese panda bond to help finance a budget deficit of about $11bn.

Adeosun said, “we are looking obviously at the lowest cost of funds to fund our budget deficit.

“Initially, we were looking simply at the eurobond but then we began to explore opportunities; so there is a possibility of issuing a panda bond.”

Adeosun added that the priority is to borrow “the cheapest possible money”, which would be a total of 1.8tn naira from international and Nigerian markets.

Noting that the renminbi-denominated bond would be cheaper than issuing a eurobond, the Ministry said, “there’s the possibility of doing a Samurai (yen-denominated bond) which is also an option we’ll look at. We’re simply shopping around for the best deals.”- Daily Post