FG Eyes Green Bond For 2017 Budget Financing
BY EDMOND ODOK, ABUJA – The Debt Management Office (DMO) says the Federal Government will deploy proceeds of the Green Bond issuance to finance projects in the 2017 Budget certified as green given their positive effects on the nation’s environment.
Director General of DMO, Patience Oniha said among projects slated for financing with the Green Bond earnings are the Renewable Energy, Micro Utilities and Afforestation Programmes.
Oniha, who spoke at the Abuja sensitization road-show preparatory to the issuance of the first Sovereign Green Bond, said the Offer is N10.69 billion and will be issued from Monday, December 18, 2017.
She stated that the Green Bond is being issued following Nigeria’s endorsement of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change on September 21, 2016.
The Paris Agreement aims to strengthen the global response to the Climate Change threat and arising from the pact, various countries that are parties have initiated steps meant to make the environment better.
Oniha further explained that the road show, also holding in Lagos on Friday, aims at sensitizing prospective investors about the Green Bond.
According to her, the road-show will also ensure that the people or organizations ready to invest in the Green Bond have proper understanding of the essence of the project.
In her remarks, a representative of the Department of Climate Change, Federal Ministry of Finance, Hajiya Halima Abubakar, said Nigeria is prone to coastal environmental hazards that informed President Muhammadu Buhari’s decision to sign the Paris Agreement for a global response to environmental challenges facing the nation.
She said there are five priority areas within the Green Bond project that requires funding and listed them as as Agriculture, Industry, Oil and Gas, Forestry and Land Use, Power and Transportation.
By this development, Nigeria now ranks among the few nations globally and the first country in Africa to issue a Green Bond. Already, DMO is collaborating with the Federal Ministry of Environment on the Issuance with Chapel Hill Denham as the Financial Advisers to the Transaction.
Equally, Moody’s Investors Service has assigned a GB1 (Excellent) Green Bond Assessment to the Issuance.
