The Debt Management Office (DMO) said on Thursday that it has listed its third sovereign Sukuk, N162.557bn 7-year 11.200 per cent AL Ijarah Sovereign Sukuk due 2027, on the Nigerian Stock Exchange and the FMDQ Securities Exchange.
This disclosure is contained in a press statement titled ‘Listing of N162.557bn 7-Year 11.200 per cent Al Ijarah Sovereign Sukuk due 2027 on the Nigerian Stock Exchange and FMDQ Securities Exchange’, issued by the DMO on Thursday, March 19, 2021, as can be seen on its website.
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The statement says that the Sukuk, which at the time of issuance was massively subscribed to the tune of N669.124bn or 446 per cent, was issued to finance 44 economic road projects across the 6 geopolitical zones, it stated.
With the listing, it said, investors who were already holding the Sukuk could trade them while new investors had an opportunity to buy the Sukuk in the secondary market.
The Director-General of DMO, Patience Oniha, while speaking on the listing said the FGN Sukuk may only be listed for trading on relevant exchanges after the commencement of works on the road project for the construction of the Sukuk assets.
She said this is in order to create a pool of assets consisting of non-financial and financial assets that could be freely traded while avoiding the prohibition of dealing in interest-based transactions arising out of the sale of debt and exchange of currency not at par.”
READ: Fashola to fix 44 roads across Nigeria with Sukuk funds
What you should know
- The DMO started the issuance of sovereign Sukuk in September 2017 as one of the measures towards attaining its strategic objective of bridging the infrastructure gap in Nigeria to promote job creation and economic growth.
- Following the successful issuance of the N100bn debut Sukuk in 2017, the DMO issued another N100bn Sukuk in 2018. The proceeds of the 2 Sukuks were deployed to the rehabilitation and reconstruction of road projects across Nigeria.
- Through the sovereign Sukuk initiative, the DMO said it had raised a total sum of N362.57bn in less than three years for the rehabilitation and construction of major economic roads across the country.
- It said by issuing sovereign Sukuk, the product range available to investors in the domestic financial market had increased, while several retail investors had been attracted to the financial markets.