Foreign Investors Upbeat

Worsening insecurity in Nigeria has not deterred foreign investors from buying its assets, Citigroup’s (C.N) country head said last week, citing $1.1 billion worth of Eurobonds it had traded for three local lenders so far this year.

But any spread of attacks further south or to the commercial hub of Lagos could start to put even established investors off, Omar Hafeez told Reuters in an interview.

The Boko Haram attacks have killed hundreds this year, with the abduction of more than 200 schoolgirls making world headlines in April and overshadowing the country’s rise to overtake South Africa as the continent’s top economy.

Nigeria also faces polls in 2015 that are likely to be the most closely fought since the end of military rule in 1999, with many fearing political violence and rampant spending on patronage, as it usually happens in election cycles.

“The investment community is very well informed ... Nigeria is a loan market and financial investors have been tapping into treasury bills and bonds for a very long time,” Hafeez said.

“The way the market looks at Boko Haram ... it’s still relatively restricted in terms of geographic presence ... but an increase (of attacks) to anywhere in the major centres will have consequences,” he said.

ThisDay

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