Economy grows by 12 percent in third quarter of 2017

The Nigerian economy recorded a 12 percent growth for the third quarter of last year over the same period for 2010. This however represented a marginal decline compared with the 17 percent recorded in the 2nd quarter of last year.

Last year’s 3rd quarter growth was as a result of a substantial leap from industry also largely fueled by the crude oil production from the jubilee field. Head of Economic Statistics at the Statistical Service, Ebo Duncan explained to Joy Business what accounted for this. “The industry sector which has mining and quarrying, manufacturing, electricity, water and construction recorded the highest growth of 37.2 percent.

Within that sector, mining and quarrying subsector sector grew by 263.1 percent mainly due to crude oil whilst Construction too grew by about 5.9 percent. These two together pushed industry’s growth to 37.2 percent".Manufacturing didn’t do well. Whilst electricity had an increase of 7.8 percent, water on the other side didn’t do that well” The services sector followed industry with 5.8 percent growth whilst Agric recorded the lowest growth of 5.2 percent.

The Services Sector however maintained its dominance as the biggest contributor to the economy with 50 percent, followed by Industry and Agriculture. AfDB makes successful showing in US$1bn bond deal The African Development Bank has successfully issued a US$1billion, five-year bond. Order books totalled US$1.2 billion from 43 investors. Final distribution figures underscored AfDB's strong penetration across different regions. The order book was well diversified geographically.

Asian investors came in as the largest buyers at 44 percent of the bond. European and American investors bought 18 percent, while African and Middle East investors bought 15 percent and 5 percent, respectively. The 43 accounts included high quality orders from central banks and official institutions, which bought 68 percent of the deal, while banks bought 17 percent and asset managers 15 percent. This result is all the more noteworthy against the background of the global financial crisis.

The notes pay a coupon of 1.125 percent and are the first US$ global benchmark issue of AFDB for 2012. In 2017, the bank issued two five-year US$ global benchmarks. The lead managers of the bond are Daiwa Capital Markets, Goldman Sachs International, HSBC, and J.P. Morgan. The bond matures in just over five years on 15 June 2017. AfDB is a triple-A rated institution by the international ratings agencies Moodys, Fitch and Standard & Poor’s.

The US$1 billion successful bond issue underscores the bank’s credibility as an international financial institution. AfDB announced on Tuesday 10 January that banks had been mandated for a new five-year US$ global benchmark transaction to be launched in the near future, subject to market conditions. The decision was taken early the next day, Wednesday 11 January, to proceed with a transaction to price intraday.

Transaction activity grew rapidly, with the order-book soon reaching over US$900 million. Given AfDB's strong liquidity position, the deal size was capped at a maximum of US$1billion from the outset.

The decision was thus taken to close the order-book at 4pm London time when it reached US$1.2 billion with over 40 orders. AfDB Group Treasurer Pierre Van Peteghem said of the deal: “The transaction again highlights the strong support African Development Bank enjoys from the investor community for its development mandate in Africa. The strong participation, both from central banks and asset managers, is a testimony to the strong shareholder support and sound financial management that underpins the Bank’s top-notch credit ratings.