The Nigerian Senate has approved the conversion of N23.72tn ($57.4bn) of the Federal Government’s unappropriated expenditure funded by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) through its ways and means window to a 40-year bond.
President Muhammadu Buhari wrote the National Assembly last year to approve the amount alongside a fresh N1tn it planned to take from the window for conversion to a 40-year tenure bond priced at nine per cent.
The bond conversion, which would ultimately move the amount from the balance sheet of the CBN to the Debt Management Office for management, has a three-year moratorium.
The request for the conversion to a bond will now be considered by the House of Representatives.