By Nkiruka Nnorom
The Debt Management Office, DMO, has listed its $1billion Sovereign Eurobond on the FMDQ OTC Securities Exchange Plc.

This 15-year domestic Sovereign Eurobond priced at par and at a coupon of 7.875 per cent per annum is the first foreign currency denominated security to be listed and traded in the Nigerian debt capital market.

The listing has, therefore, opened an opportunity for other Nigerian corporates that have raised fund from the international market to list bonds for trading by local investors on the platform.

While making the opening remarks, FMDQ’s Chairman, Dr. Sarah O. Alade, represented by Mr. Jubril Aku, Vice Chairman, FMDQ, congratulated the issuer on the epochal step, noting that the  move by the government to list on a domestic exchange, in addition to listing offshore, was a welcome development, and a stance which would rightly position the nation to maximise its potential via the debt capital market.

In his address at the inaugural listing ceremony at the FMDQ, the Director General of Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC, Mounir Gwazor, said the listing would boost the performance of the capital market in Nigeria as well as improve the contribution of the capital market to the nation’s GDP, which is  today is very low.