#Nigeria looks to #sukuk for infrastructure funding needs

Nigeria hopes to use a proposed Sukuk issuance programme to help fund big infrastructure needs. The country plans to borrow as much as $10 bn from debt markets to help fund a budget deficit worsened by the slump in oil prices that has slashed revenues and weakened the naira. Secretary of finance Alhaji Mahmoud Isa-Dutse said the federal government is working on a sovereign sukuk with details expected within the year. In 2013, Nigeria's Osun State issued 10 bn naira ($62 mn) of sukuk, but no other sukuk transactions have followed.