Goddy Egene
The Director-General, the Debt Management Office (DMO), Ms. Patience Oniha said the federal government has raised sum of N10.5 billion through Federal Government of Nigeria Savings Bond (FNSB) since the creation of the bonds March, 2017.
The FNSB programme introduced in March 2017 to boost domestic investors’ participation in the bond market.
Speaking in Lagos, Oniha said: “From the 18 months of the creation of the FGN savings Bonds, we have been able to raise N10.5 billion and attracted 13,200 retail investors into the market.”
However, she said the amount raised and the number of investors were very minimal when compared with the amount government spent on enlightenment campaign.
According to her, a lot needs to be done to strengthen financial inclusion of the federal government, stressing that the target of the government through the FNSB has not been not actually been met.
She said that DMO was presently studying the possibility of using phones as used in Kenya by investors to participate directly in the government securities.
“From the 18 months of the creation of the FGN savings Bonds, we have been able to raise N10.5 billion and attracted 13,200 retail investors into the market. As you know the DMO borrows on behalf of the government. One of our objectives is to be able to issue our securities in a timely manner and at a very minimal cost,” Oniha said.
Speaking on the use of technology in government securities, she said: “The issue around what technology can do in terms of raising capital is extremely important to us. We, traditionally for a long term have been serving only a segment of the market, the institutional investors and foreign investors. There is no buy side from the retail investors because they need to be knowledgeable and familiar to invest in the sovereign bond.”
Meanwhile, Managing Director, Access Bank Plc, Mr. Albert Wigwe , has said that greater number of people could be reached with technology.
He said: “There is a flow of huge technology changes. Today with technology, you can reach out to greater number of people and financial institutions are deploying technology to enhance service delivery.
“The traditional way to make money is vanishing, so we need to look at other ways to make money and cut cost.
“We have 65 per cent of Nigerians who are youths and they are important segment of the society. So, at Access Bank we are using technology to reach the youths and change how people transact business.
“Today usage of cards are no longer on the increase because of increase in technology through phones.”
