The Nigeria's $31M Renewable Energy Bond
The Nigerian government is hitting the bond market for $31 million for financing renewable energy projects in Nigeria. The fund will finance three projects: Renewable Energy Micro-Utilities Programme, Re-energising Education Programme and Afforestation Programme.
Patience Oniha, the Director-General, Debt Management Office, DMO, says the federal government is planning to issue N10.6 billion green bonds to finance renewable energy projects to protect the environment.
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She said that the forum was to educate prospective investors in the Green Bond programme to know the benefits of investing in green bond projects
This is a tough one if the government wants to put itself directly on this. But yes, Nigeria does not have capital to drive some of these projects. So, it makes sense for government to get the capital. The challenge, unfortunately, is that none of these initiatives have ever worked. Government should explore reforming our venture capital industry and make it more attractive for investors to put money in Nigeria. That way market-driven strategies which are usually more sustainable will drive and anchor the initiatives.
Government does not need to hit the bond market for $31 million when it can offer great incentives to investors to go and fix the specific identified frictions. We cannot say that we have great policies when people are not taking advantages of opportunities across the nation. It is either the policies are not good enough to activate the greed of capitalism or that no opportunity exists. We know the opportunities are, so the problems are the policies.
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Hope they have plans on how to recoup the money? These guys seem to be making governance look so straightforward: all you need do is keep borrowing money, that's the easiest thing to do anyway. This country might be in a bigger mess in the future, if some of the current madness are not corrected now. The three items mentioned aren't even viable to warrant borrowing. Broken system, total disconnection in many places!
