FG issues another N100bn Sukuk bond

October 10, 2018 9:05 pm

An Emirati man follows the market's movement on a monitor at the Dubai Financial Market in the Gulf emirate on November 30, 2009. Stock markets in Dubai and neighbouring Gulf emirate Abu Dhabi went into freefall as investors in the United Arab Emirates grabbed their first chance to respond to Dubai's debt crisis. AFP PHOTO/KARIM SAHIB (Photo credit should read KARIM SAHIB/AFP/Getty Images)

The federal government has announced the approval for the issuance of a second tranche of N100 billion Sukuk bond.

This was disclosed at a two-day training on Sukuk structurisation and management in Abuja.

The training was organised by the Metropolitan Skills Ltd in collaboration with the ministry of finance, and Standing Committee for Economic and Commercial Cooperation of the organisation of the Islamic Cooperation (COMCEC).

The federal government issued the first N100 billion Sukuk bond in September 2017 to finance the construction of 25 economic roads.

You can view the full list of the roads that benefitted from the first bond here.

Ummahani Amin, chief executive officer (CEO) of Metropolitan Skills, said the second tranche of the Sukuk bond will be issued by the Debt Management Organisation (DMO) in October.

According to her, like the first tranche, the second bond will be used to finance infrastructure and construction of roads across the six geopolitical zones in the country.

Amin said the first N100 billion Sukuk issued last year recorded a huge success, promising that this year’s will not be different.

“We are doing the second tranche now because the first one was successful and over subscribed. N100 billion was involved in the first and the second is on the way,” Amin said.

“So we are looking at the same infrastructure, construction of roads across Nigeria and the six geopolitical zones. This has never happened in the history of Nigeria for infrastructure.”

The issuance of the first bond had sparked controversy, with the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) claiming the bond was a ploy by the government to Islamise Nigeria.

TheCable had fact-checked the claim and found it incorrect.

The first bond was oversubscribed by six percent.