Lagos pays N141.59B to bond holders

The Lagos State Government says it has paid the total sum of N141.59 billion to bond holders in its various fixed rate bond programmes.

The bonds are the Lagos State N80bn fixed rate programme 2, Series 1 floated in 2012 with a maturity date of 2013; N87.5bn fixed rate programme 2, Series 2 floated in 2013 with a maturity date of 2020 ;and N47bn fixed rate programme 3, series 1 floated in 2016 with a maturity date of 2023.

The figures were revealed on Tuesday, at the 5th Annual General Meeting, AGM, between the state government and bond holders, held at the Civic Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos, South-West Nigeria.

In the N80bn fixed rate programme 2, Series 1 bond, the state government as at September 2017 had paid N76.17bn to bond holders out of the N97.43bn it contributed to the bond, leaving a balance of N30.34bn invested in fixed income and treasury bills.

In the N87.5bn fixed rate programme 2, Series 2 bond, the sum of N61.44bn was paid to bond holders out of the N75.91bn contributed by government, leaving a balance of N18.49bn invested in fixed income and treasury bills.

In the N47bn fixed rate programme 3, Series 1 bond floated last year, the sum of N3.9bn had been paid to bond holders out of the N4.2bn contributed by the government as at September 2017, leaving a balance of N229.7 million, which had been invested in fixed income and treasury bills.

Lagos State Commissioner for Finance, Akinyemi Ashade, told the gathering at the AGM that the various bonds had been used to upscale infrastructural development in the state in the areas of roads and bridges construction, water, transportation, health and waterfront infrastructural development.

According to him, $50bn was needed to address infrastructural deficits in the state, which he said, was part of the reasons the government floated bonds to bridge the gap, adding that over time, two bridges had been constructed with the proceeds from the bonds while major infrastructure were upgraded across the metropolis.

Ashade said the state government was committed to uplifting its debt ratings and would borrow at reduced rate, saying that in the coming year, government was going to invest massively in projects.

The commissioner added that the state government was looking for ways to increase its revenue; and that part of the move was to review existing rate systems, which had been in use since in the 1980s with ridiculous rate.

“We will update our laws to increase revenue. Those revenue laws have been in existence since the 1980s and they have ridiculous rates,” he said.