The Federal Government is exploring offshore debt option amongst other fiscal measures aimed at ensuring that the 2018 budget deficit gap is minimized.

Specifically, the government is planning to raise $2.8 billion loans from overseas creditors with a view to reducing the cost of borrowing to the minimal level.

The Director General of the Debt Management Office (DMO), Patience Oniha, told Reuters that offshore fund remained the most viable option to the country to explore in government’s determination to ensure sustainability of Nigeria’s debt.

This is despite the fact that interest rates are rising in the United States which could make the country pay a higher premium now when compared with its last February debt sale.

Already, IFR reported that the DMO had forwarded a request for a proposal to banks for an international bond offering, citing sources.

“We will explore all options keeping in mind our twin objectives of extending the tenor of the debt stock and lowering costs”, Oniha told Reuters.

Earlier in January, the debt management expert had said that the DMO could explore windows availed by capital markets or concessionary loans from the World Bank amongst other financing options to fund the 2018 budget..

Nigeria had  raised $2.5 billion through a dual-tranche Eurobond offering in February this year, through the sale of a 12-year Note at 7.1 percent to raise $1.25 billion and a 20-year tranche at 7.7 percent.

It would be recalled that the country which recovered from economic recession early last year, had approved a three-year debt plan in 2016 to borrow more from abroad so that 40 percent of its loans would come from offshore as a fiscal strategy to lower borrowing costs.

Statistics provided by the DMO indicated that currently Nigeria has about 23 percent of its debt stock from offshore, up from the 16 percent level before the debt plan approved in 2016.