Nigeria is looking at issuing a Eurobond worth up to $1 billion next year to fund its power and gas sector reforms, taking advantage of the country's likely inclusion in a J. P Morgan emerging market index, the finance minister said on Friday.
Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala also told Reuters in an interview on Friday that her long-term target was to scrap the country's Excess Crude Account (ECA) and replace it with a planned sovereign wealth fund.
J. P Morgan said on August 15 that Nigeria is likely to be included in J. P Morgan's Government Bond Index - Emerging Markets (GBI-EM) from October, which the minister said would open up fresh opportunities for issuance.
"We are thinking next year of an infrastructure bond to help our power and gas sector," she said in her office overlooking the capital Abuja.
"Anywhere from $500 million to $1 billion. We are trying to see if we can do something unique by having a portion as a diaspora bond." She pointed to Nigeria's improved credit ratings in the past year, with Fitch upgrading the country to BB- and Standard & Poors upgrading its rating outlook to positive from stable.
Africa's second-biggest economy has over the years earned a reputation for reckless fiscal spending and chronic corruption, ills which Okonjo-Iweala was brought back into the country from her former World Bank job to cure.