Nigeria’s dollar bonds jump after new president scraps fuel subsidy

Nigeria’s dollar bonds rallied after President Bola Tinubu scrapped the nation’s $10 billion fuel subsidy program and announced plans to adopt a uniform exchange rate.

Debt due in 2047 jumped 3.3% to 66.750 cents on the dollar by 10:10 a.m. in London. Bonds due in 2049 gained 2.9% and those maturing in 2051 advanced 3,5%. The gains came as markets in London and the US reopened a day after Tinubu’s speech at his inauguration on Monday.

The new president said the government plans to use the funds that it will save to fund education and health projects. He also called on the central bank to lower interest rates to help boost economic output, as the government targets an annual growth rate of 6%.

“The speech is likely to be well-received by investors,” Tunde Abidoye and Tobi Ehinmosan, analysts at FBNQuest in Lagos, said in an emailed note. The removal of petrol subsidy is “necessary to create much-needed fiscal space” to grow the economy, while the harmonization of the nation’s multiple exchange rates will help close the arbitrage gap between the official and parallel market exchange rates, they said.