The Federal Government at the weekend listed 14 tranches of its Federal Government of Nigeria’s Savings Bonds (FGNSBs) worth N9.801 billion on the Nigerian Exchange (NGX), providing a secondary window for existing and new investors to trade on the retail bonds.
The 14 bonds were issued between June, last year and January 2023 and comprised of two and three-year bonds with coupons ranging from 8.0 per cent to 13.3 per cent.
The government had raised N533.03 million in its maiden bond issuance in 2023, as it began the long haul to bridge the N11.34 trillion 2023 budget deficit.
A breakdown indicated that the government had allotted N145.42 million bonds with two-year tenor and N387.61 million bonds with three-year tenor.
Compared with similar debt issuance last December, the January 2023 allotment indicated that allotment for two-year bonds decreased by 51.17 per cent compared to N297.81 million allotted in December 2022 while allotment for three-year bonds declined by 57.34 per cent when compared with N908.65 million allotted in December 2022.
The government offered the January 2023 two-year sovereign retail bond at a coupon of 9.6 per cent per annum, 21.7 per cent below the 12.255 per cent offered on similar bond in December 2022. It also offered three-year FGNSBs at a coupon of 10.6 per cent per annum, 20.03 per cent below 13.255 per cent offered for similar bond last December.
While more investors appeared to favour the longer-tenored issuance, the number of successful subscriptions also declined considerably in January 2023 when compared with December 2022. Successful subscribers for two-year FGNSBs dropped from 153 in December 2022 to 88 in January 2023 while that of three-year bonds dropped from 294 in December 2022 to 205 in January 2023.
