Citigroup Sees More Nigerian Companies Tapping Overseas Markets

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Citigroup Inc. is seeing increased demand from Nigerian companies planning to raise cash in international capital markets to expand amid renewed investor interest in West Africa.

“The major concern for most corporates as well as potential investors last year was the elections and the possible implications for policy direction, especially from an exchange-rate perspective,” Akin Dawodu, the lender’s Nigerian head, said in the commercial hub of Lagos. With the vote done, Citigroup expects companies will be “harmonizing their funding needs with their business plans.”

President Muhammadu Buhari, 76, won a second four-year term earlier this year in general elections European Union observers said were marred by violence and intimidation.

Dawodu, who oversees Citigroup’s West and Central Africa operations, said international investors are interested in more debt issuance from the region.

“We are increasingly working with local clients to access international markets,” he said, “having historically been focused on the opposite flow.”

Citigroup is focusing its own businesses activities in the region on top local companies, the domestic units of global firms, the public sector and financial institutions, for which it has helped raise more than $15 billion from international markets over the past 24 months, Dawodu said.

Source: Blooomberg Business News