Tinubu's Finance Minister, Wale Edun’s Chapel Hill Denham, Others Awarded Lucrative Contracts To Advise Nigeria On $1 Billion Eurobond For Spending Needs

Reports indicate that Nigeria has enlisted the services of prominent investment banks, including Citigroup Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co., and Goldman Sachs Group Inc., to provide counsel on the country’s forthcoming eurobond issuance, marking its first such venture since 2022, according to knowledgeable sources.

Bloomberg disclosed on Thursday that the specific size of the eurobond offer, anticipated to be launched before June, has not been finalized yet. These sources, who opted to remain anonymous due to the sensitive nature of the subject, provided this information.

In addition to the aforementioned banks, Nigeria has engaged the expertise of Standard Chartered Bank and Lagos-based Chapel Hill Denham as advisory partners.

Wale Edun, Nigeria’s Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, is the founder of Chapel Hill Denham Group, a prominent investment banking, securities trading, and investment management firm.

The firm boasts a diverse client base, including financial institutions, multinationals, and governmental bodies, and offers comprehensive advisory services.

In June 2023, Chapel Hill Denham, in collaboration with the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet (GEAPP), established the Energy Transition & Access Facility for Africa (ETAFA), a groundbreaking financing initiative aimed at supporting distributed renewable energy (DRE) projects in Nigeria with an initial allocation of US$50 million.

With Nigeria’s recent approval of a N28.7 trillion budget for the 2024 fiscal year, featuring a deficit of N9.8 trillion, the country faces the need for financing through borrowings to implement the budget effectively. This budget is 26% larger than the 2023 budget proposed by former President Muhammadu Buhari