Visionscape, the company contracted to handle waste management in Lagos state, has allayed the fears of investors over the state’s government default in paying the Green Note.
The state government missed the payment of the Green Note due for Tuesday, March 5.
The note, with a four and a half year tenor, was meant to pay its investors in the first week of March but the “poor state of the Note’s sinking fund and the slow response of the state’s treasury to the payment of the fixed income obligation” had raised anxiety among the investors.
The fixed income note, a sub category of the larger N50 billion medium term Note, is used to finance the Cleaner Lagos project of the government.
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Addressing the growing anxiety concerning the payment, Visionscape, on Thursday, said the issue would be “resolved in due course”.
In a statement, the company said: “Lagos State is a beacon of fiscal responsibility with an exemplary track record of fulfilling its fiduciary obligations.
“We continue to actively engage all stakeholders to address the issues at hand and we are confident that all will be resolved in due course.”
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The Lagos government had launched the N50 billion green bond for waste management in August 2017.
Green bonds are like regular bonds, with a slight difference – they can only be used to fund projects that have been identified to have environmental benefits and their contribution to emissions reduction clearly articulated.
Speaking at a roundtable discussion with stakeholders to explore the prospects of the Cleaner Lagos Initiative through the bond, S.B. Adejare, Lagos commissioner for environment, had said the bond is a partnership between the state and the private sector to achieve long-term financing of waste management in the state.
The state engaged Visionscape to provide the required infrastructure for environmental waste management that is sustainable.
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The bond, which has a five-year tenor at 17.5% interest, was projected to create 27,500 new jobs.
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