LAGOS (Reuters) – Nigeria will start an international roadshow next week for the sale of a diaspora bond and has named Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Standard Bank of South Africa as joint lead managers, its debt management office said on Thursday.

Africa’s biggest economy first unveiled in 2013 plans to sell diaspora bonds worth between $100 million to $300 million from Nigerians living abroad. But the government at the time did not appoint a bookrunner until an election brought the opposition into office.
A roadshow will start on June 13 with meetings planned in Britain, Switzerland and the United States, the debt office said in a statement.

“Nigeria has filed a registration statement for the Bonds with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission,” the statement said, adding that the Bonds would be listed in London. It gave no price expectations.

Nigeria, grappling with its first recession in 25 years that was largely brought on by low oil prices and the impact of attacks on energy facilities in the Niger Delta, has set a budget of 7.44 trillion naira ($23.66 billion) this year.

The West African country expects a budget deficit of about 2.21 trillion naira in 2017 as it tries to spend its way out of a recession, with more than half the deficit to be funded through external borrowing.

The OPEC member country successfully raised $1 billion in February and $500 million in March from Eurobond sales and is planning more external borrowing to plug the gap in this year’s budget.
($1 = 314.50 naira)
(Reporting by Oludare Mayowa; editing by Mark Heinrich)