BY AMAKA ABAYOMI, WITH AGENCY REPORT

The African Devel-opment Bank may sell international bonds on behalf of Nigeria and Rwanda and market them to people born in those nations that live overseas, said Mthuli Ncube, the bank’s chief economist and vice president.

The so-called diaspora bonds will be partly guaranteed by the Tunis-based lender, Ncube said in an interview in Cape Town today.

Nigeria has the potential to sell as much as $2 billion of the bonds, according to the ADB’s research, he added.

“We are at the early phases of investigating a diaspora bond for these countries,” Ncube said. “These will be used as pilots.”

The ADB hopes to sell the bonds within 12 months, and will guarantee part of the debt, using its investment-grade credit ratings to add “credibility,” Ncube said.

The lender is rated AAA by Moody’s Investor Service, AAA by Standard & Poor’s and AAA by Fitch, the highest investment grade in each case.

Companies and governments in sub-Saharan Africa could raise as much as $10 billion a year by issuing diaspora bonds backed by remittance flows, the World Bank and ADB said in a report on its website on March 30.

Remittances to Africa grew fourfold between 1990 and 2010, to $40 billion last year, according to World Bank and ADB data.

India and Israel are among countries that have already issued such bonds.