The federal government has announced the appointment of a consortium of banks including Citi Group, Standard Chartered, StanbicIBTC, Whitten-Case and African Practice to handle the $2.5b Eurobond.
Kemi Adeosun, Minister of Finance, stated this while briefing journalists on the USD2.5 billion External Borrowing for refinancing.
Adeosun speaking on the impact of the use of the Proceeds of the USD500 million issued in November 2017, hinted that the proceeds, about N162.50 billion, were used to redeem Nigerian Treasury Bills, NTBs, which matured in December 2017.
She said: ” The immediate impact was a significant drop in the Bid Rates at the Auctions of both NTBs and FGN Bonds. In December 2017 and January 2018.”
The NTBs, according to her, dropped from about 16 percent to 13 percent while the Bonds dropped from about 16-16.50 per cent to 13.50 per cent.
“This translates to savings for government on new borrowing while also making the cost of borrowing for the real sector cheaper since the sovereign rate serves as a benchmark for other borrowers. This is just as government announced potential Savings on the proposed USD2.5 billion Refinancing, estimated at N64b per annum,” the minister said.
Adeosun announced “The estimated proceeds of the N762.5 billion will be used to redeem NTBs. At estimated current NTB rates of 15 percent (following mop-up operations by the CBN), the savings from the refinancing of N762.5 billion of Domestic Debt using external capital raising is about N64 billion per annum.”
Meanwhile, normalcy prevailed at the premises of the National Health Insurance Scheme, NHIS, yesterday, following the reinstatement of the Executive Secretary, Prof Usman Yusuf, who is expected to resume today, even as organised labour and staff of the agency expressed shock and embarrassment.
A source at the NHIS head office in Abuja, decried the manner of the Executive Secretary’s reinstatement by the Presidency.
“We are embarrassed to read about the reinstatement of the NHIS Executive Secretary, Prof. Usman Yusuf, from the media this morning.
“There was no prior communication to the Scheme about the development. That fact, notwithstanding, we anticipated his return today but saw no sign of him.
However, we have it on good authority that he would resume on Thursday,” the source noted.
It would be recalled that Yusuf was suspended in June 2017 by the Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole following his indictment by an administrative panel set-up by the Minister to probe allegations of gross misconduct and financial recklessness level against him.
Yusuf was reinstated on Tuesday by President Mohammadu Buhari.
Reacting to the development, organised labour yesterday expressed shock, contending that it mocked President Buhari’s acclaimed war against corruption. Speaking through the Association’s of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria, ASCSN, Labour declared that the recall of Prof Yusuf was another dent in the anti-corruption war of President Buhari-led Federal Government.
In a statement issued in Lagos, the ASCSN Secretary-General, Comrade Alade Bashir Lawal, posited that the action of the President was capable of being interpreted to mean that the government’s anti-graft war was selective and designed to deal with specific targets.
It read: “How can a government official being investigated for a whopping sum of N919 million fraud by the Economic and Financial Crime Commission, EFCC, be reinstated by the government that came to power, promising to sanitize the system?
”This is very unfortunate. We, therefore, urge President Buhari to rescind his action and allow Professor Yusuf to leave the system in peace.
“As a union, we believe that the action of Mr. President is capable of lending credence to Professor Yusuf’s arrogant public statements several times that he could not report to the Minister of Health since he deal directly with Mr. President. Thus, if Professor Yusuf resumes as Executive Secretary of NHIS, it will amount to passing a vote of no confidence on the Minister. ”
ASCSN argued that the Investigative Panel set up by the Minister of Health to look into the alleged atrocities of Professor Yusuf, which include engaging consultancy firm in which he had vested interest to be ripping off the NHIS was serious public demeanour that should not be condoned.
“The union is of the opinion that the dust surrounding the smuggling of Maina, former Chairman, Presidential Task Forces on Pension Reforms, back to the Public Service is just settling down and now it is the re-instatement of Professor Yusuf.
”Already, workers in the NHIS have become restive, thereby setting the tone for series of Trade Union actions that will be deployed, if Yusuf is eventually reinstated.”
