The Federal Government has said the over subscription of its recent Eurobond (orders in excess of $7.8 billion compared to a pre-issuance target of $1bn) showed strong market appetite for Nigeria.
It also said the development is confirming confidence of the international investment community in Nigeria’s economic reform agenda.
These were contained in Issue 23 of the Aso Villa Newsletter called “Government at Work” released on Monday.
In the newsletter, government gave 11 reasons why it believed the economy is on its way out of recession.
After two consecutive quarters of negative growth, the newsletter showed that the non-oil sector of the economy witnessed a modest return to positive territory, at 0.03 per cent in third quarter of 2016.
It attributed the marginal growth to the continued good performance of agriculture and the solid minerals, two sectors prioritised by the federal government.
According to the bulletin, agriculture grew by 4.54 per cent in the quarter under consideration of which growth in crop production at nearly five per cent was at its highest since the first quarter of 2014.
Growth in the solid mineral sector, the newsletter said averaged about seven per cent.
The second reason the government believed the economy was recovering was the Anchor Borrowers Programme (ABP) of the Central Bank of Nigeria which it said substantially raised local rice production in 2016.
During the period, rice yields improved from two tonnes per hectare to as much as seven tonnes per hectare in some states and produced a model agricultural collaboration between Lagos and Kebbi States.
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