The federal government yesterday approved Citigroup, Standard Chartered Bank, Standard IBTC Holding Plc., White and Case, Banwo & Ighodalo and Africa Practice as transaction parties for the $1billion Eurobond issue.Minister of finance, Kemi Adeosun, made this known to State House correspondents after the federal executive council (FEC) meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.She was joined at the briefing by the minister of information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, and that of environment, Amina Mohammed.The finance minister explained that the $1 billion Euro bond programme is part of the funding of the 2016 budget and expressed confidence that the process will begin next month.She said, My memo which was approved by council was for the appointment of the transaction parties for the $1 billion Euro bond issue.The bank transaction parties are Citigroup, Standard Chartered Bank, Standard IBTC Holding Plc, White and Case, Banwo & Ighodalo and Africa Practice Communications Advisers.The one billion dollars Euro bond programme is part of the funding of the 2016 budget and we hope to be able to commence that process in January.Adeosun pointed out that the federal government obtained a certificate of no objections from the Bureau of Public Enterprise (BPP) for the appointment of those parties, having undertaken a fully competitive open tender process.She expressed confidence that the government would be able to complete these transactions expediently as there is already significant interest, with oil price stability helping the government.Currently, there is quite a bit of demand for emerging market paper. Nigerias paper count is trading around the 7 to 8 percent mark. Angola came out in November with bench UAD I.56 and Gabon in June did 8.25. Ghana in September did 9.25.So were expecting to get quite a competitive pricing on the issuance programme which, as I said, is to be used for the purposes of funding capital projects as part of the 2016 budget within the month of January.The other thing to note is that these parties that have been appointed will run any Euro bond issuance programme that we do for the next three years; so, we dont have to keep on retangling. Unless there is a major problem with any of them, they would be our parties for the next three years, Adeosun said.On her part, the minister of environment said the federal government was in the process of finalising the amendment to the gazette of the establishment of the hydrocarbon pollution restoration process/purchasethe vehicle that is supposed to have all the government structures to enhance the clean-up the Niger Delta beginning with Ogoniland and the implementation of the UNEP report.She noted that the past gazette did not put in place some of the government structures needed, such as the government board, like the board of trustees, or a structure that would be held accountable for the enormous amount of money that is already available for spending.This now will enable us to put more structure to the board of trustees (BoT) which requires a legal entity to put the resources in, and then we hope that in the New Year, we will begin to roll out, to begin with the building of the centre of excellence.The Integrated Soil Treatment Centre will also go up and then we will begin training, but in this case we start training many of the women on the livelihood side in the many of the contaminated areas.So we have to find better ways of speaking with communities but also ensuring that livelihoods of women are not affected. We are also speaking to many of the young people there. We have a good feedback from those who are interested in being a part of the rollout of the clean-up of Ogoniland in the New Year, Mohammed stated.
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