Citigroup Inc. has said that Nigeria, Angola and Kenya are among the African countries that are expected to draw more foreign investment flows despite the huge decline in their currencies.
This is coming barely a week after global financial service firm, JP Morgan, revealed that Nigeria’s net FX Reserve is estimated to be around $3.7 billion, much lower than the net figure of $14 billion that was reported, putting the country’s foreign exchange market under further pressure.
According to Bloomberg, this was made known by Citi’s Head of Markets for Sub-Saharan Africa, George Asante, during an interview in Nairobi, where he stated that these countries with significant forex adjustments are clear winners from an investment perspective.
On the prospects for Eurobond issuance by African nations, Asante said the darlings of the market including Ivory Coast and Senegal will probably attract the most interest from investors when the market reopens, adding that both countries have long-term foreign debt ratings of Ba3 from Moody’s Investors Service.
He said, “These two countries have fairly consistently high growth rates, diversified economic bases, large IMF programs with associated concessional financing and a track record for economic reforms and fiscal prudence as well as low cost of debt service.’’