‘Nigeria’s Debt Market Remains Attractive’
Nigeria’s debt capital market has remained resilient despite the challenging environment, experts have said.
According to them, confidence building over the last few years and strong market liquidity has resulted in noteworthy transactions from the previously unrepresented sectors. However, there is still a lot of room for growth, they noted.
This was reinforced at the fourth annual, “Bonds, Loans and Sukuk Program,” that featured various issuers, investors, regulators and business leaders.
The event which held recently in Lagos was sponsored by Rand Merchant Bank (RMB).
Speaking at the event, Deputy Chief Executive Officer and Head, Investment Banking, RMB Nigeria, Dalu Ajene, said the Nigerian debt capital markets remains burgeoning as investors continue to show interest in many sectors, such as power, telecommunications and financial services.
Ajene explained: “Nigeria’s debt capital markets proved resilient in a challenging environment over the past year as noteworthy transactions have contributed to the steady development of the Nigerian market.”
RMB, he said, would continue playing an important role as an intermediary in the debt capital markets and as a facilitator of transactions by working closely with issuers, investors as well as regulators.
Also, the Senior Transactor, DFG, RMB Nigeria, Ikechukwu Omeruah, said: “The annual bonds and loans sukuk conference provides an avenue for all stakeholders of the debt markets – issuers, borrowers, advisers, investors, lenders, and regulators to meet and discuss ways we can further develop our markets.”
He added: “The opportunity to understand the requirements of prospective issuers and discerning whether it is optimal to access the markets to issue in local or foreign currency is important.
“In addition, understanding what the investors are looking for in terms of tenor and yield are also very essential factors. In view of this, we ensure that we connect the investors with opportunities they want to look at, the type of deals they want to see and make sure there is a match in risk appetite and return expectations.”
RMB’s Ikechukwu moderated a panel that offered a perspective on successfully launching a capital market transaction.
The panel illuminated prospective first time Nigerian issuers on the process of raising capital via the issuance of debt securities through both the Nigerian and international
debt capital markets.
The panel included finance executives of first-time issuers from the power, fintech and oil and gas sectors, who were able to speak to very recent experiences from accessing the capital markets.
The panellists spoke in detail on, “the benefits of establishing a Debt Issuance Programme, various means of ensuring an efficient time to market, how to position a first-time issuer to local and foreign investors (including the various mediums that could be used to develop a relationship with investors), and how debt is priced in the markets.