By Chijioke Ohuocha

LAGOS (Reuters) – Nigeria has $500 million of commitments for the planned $1 billion eurobond it intends to issue before the end of the year and any decision to increase the size of the offer will depend on pricing, Finance Minister Kemi Adeosun said on Thursday.

Nigeria wants to sell a $1 billion in eurobonds by the end of the year although, as of Thursday, no bank had been appointed to arrange the issue.

“At the moment am focused on the $1 billion,” she said in a video recording to an investor conference in Lagos.

Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy, slipped into recession for the first time in 25 years in the second quarter, largely due to low global oil prices. Crude oil sales account for about two-thirds of government revenues.

The government has laid out plans to spend a record 6.866 trillion naira ($22.5 billion) to help pull Nigeria out of recession in a draft 2017 budget sent to parliament for approval.

Spending this year was 6.06 trillion naira, but the government has struggled to fund this, and analysts were sceptical that it would manage to meet the targets for overseas borrowing that it has set for the next few years.

Adeosun said the country was “further along” with the African Development Bank for a $1 billion budget support loan than the World Bank due to scheduling issues.

“We have pushed World Bank funding into next year’s budget,” she said.

President Muhammadu Buhari has asked parliament to approve $30 billion of foreign borrowing to fund planned infrastructure projects until 2018, according to a letter read out to lawmakers on Tuesday.

The proposed borrowing includes the sale of eurobonds worth $4.5 billion and budget support of $3.5 billion, according to the letter.

The finance ministry said on Thursday the $30 billion borrowing was going to be phased over a three-year period to cover proposed projects between 2016-2018.

Adeosun said Nigeria was interested in tapping funds at concessionary rates to develop infrastructure and that most of the funding it was seeking would carry concessionary terms.

The funding is being sought from multilateral agencies including the World Bank, Africa Development Bank, Islamic Development Bank, Japan International Co-operation Agency and China Eximbank, the ministry said in a statement.

Adeosun said expected taxes collection as a percentage of GDP which is currently at 5 percent to hit 7 percent within three-years and to reach 10 percent within 5 years.

Nigeria’s debt office has said the country can borrow up to $22 billion in 2017 from both local and foreign sources without breaching the debt threshold it has set for itself.

(Additional reporting by Oludare Mayowa and Felix Onuah in Abuja; Editing by Angus MacSwan)

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By David Lawder

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The International Monetary Fund said on Thursday that a $12 billion loan program for Egypt should be ready for board approval in the next few weeks and insisted that it would not call for cuts to food subsidies.

“Progress has been made on a number of objectives and actions under that program in the subsequent period and we expect the program to come to the board within the next few weeks,” IMF spokesman Gerry Rice said at a news briefing.

Board consideration of the program depends on putting in place $5 billion to $6 billion in bilateral financing that will provide funds in the first year of the program to supplement about $4 billion in first-year funding from the IMF, Rice said.

“Egypt has made good progress to secure this financing, including contributions from China, Saudia Arabia and G7 countries,” he said, without providing specific details of the contributions.

Additional progress is needed toward key reforms required in an IMF staff-level agreement with Egypt reached in July, Rice said, including steps to implement a recently passed budget and value-added tax, a government plan to reduce energy subsidies and to “move gradually” toward a more flexible exchange rate.

(Reporting by David Lawder; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

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KINSHASA (Reuters) – Congo’s mines minister said on Thursday that the government “salutes and supports” China Molybdenum Co’s bid to buy Freeport McMoRan’s majority stake in the giant Tenke copper project despite objections from state miner Gecamines.

The statement by Martin Kabwelulu appeared to be an effort to smooth passage of the transaction after Gecamines said last week that it had challenged the deal at the International Court of Arbitration in Paris to assert a right of first offer.

However, Kabwelulu’s statement cautioned that the $2.65 billion deal for Freeport’s 56 percent stake, agreed to in May, must respect the rights of Gecamines, which holds a 20 percent stake in Tenke, one of the world’s largest copper mines.

“The Government is favourable to the conclusion of the sale … but in respect of the rights of Gecamines, in order to permit the country to construct a long-term, win-win partnership with this Chinese company,” Kabwelulu said.

Gecamines, Freeport and China Molybdenum could not immediately be reached for comment.

Toronto-based Lundin Mining, which owns the remaining 24 percent of the mine, has until Nov. 15 to exercise its right of first offer, after which Freeport says the sale to China Molybdenum will go through.

Gecamines said last month it had submitted an offer to buy Freeport’s stake without revealing any details. Freeport denies that Gecamines has a right of first offer.

Democratic Republic of Congo, which mined nearly 1 million tonnes of copper last year, is Africa’s top producer of the metal and also extracts significant quantities of gold, diamonds, cobalt and tin.

(Reporting By Aaron Ross, editing by David Evans)

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PRETORIA (Reuters) – South Africa’s current account deficit is “not nearly as bad” as when it was considered part of the so-called “fragile five”, International Monetary Fund chief economist Maurice Obstfeld said on Thursday.

South Africa was one of five countries including Turkey, Brazil, India and Indonesia that got their name in 2013 when hints emerged that the U.S. Federal Reserve would end its easy-money policy.

(Reporting by TJ Strydom; Editing by Kevin Liffey)

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South Africa’s rand was firmer against the dollar in early trade on Wednesday ahead of Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan’s unveiling of the medium-term budget policy statement at 1200 GMT.

* Rand at 13.6900/dlr by 0655 GMT, 0.50 percent firmercompared with the previous day’s close. * Gordhan’s statement, which will look at governmentspending priorities for the next the years, is meant to boostinvestor confidence and show his looming fraud case is notdistracting him. * “We expect today’s budget will be rand supportive … Withlocal elections out of the way, the budget has no populist tonesto strike but National Treasury will need to tightly hold to theexpenditure ceiling and allude to progress on reforms given thepolitical uncertainty and rating pressure,” said Rand MerchantBank currency strategist John Cairns in a morning note. * In fixed income, the yield for the benchmark governmentbond due in 2026 down 5.5 basis points at 8.735 percent. * Stocks open lower in line with global peers, withbenchmark Top-40 index down 0.83 percent to 44,828.

(Reporting by Ed Stoddard; Editing by Ralph Boulton)

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By Tarek Amara

TUNIS (Reuters) – Tunisia will offer foreign investors and financiers participation in $50 billion of projects as it seeks to create jobs to maintain political stability, the country’s investment minister said.

The projects range from construction of a new deep-water port at Enfidha in northern Tunisia to desalination plants and energy-generating projects. They will be announced at an international investment conference next month.

Investors from 70 countries are expected to come to Tunisia for the conference, Fadhel Abdelkefi, the minister of development, investment and international cooperation, said in an interview at the Reuters Middle East Investment Summit.

“We will offer foreign investors and financing funds big projects worth $50 billion, to be implemented during the next five years,” Abdelkefi said. “Some projects will be in partnership between the state and the private sector.”

Foreign direct investment in Tunisia has been sluggish since the ousting of Tunisia’s authoritarian leader, Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, in January 2011 ushered in an era of political and industrial unrest.

“At least 500 foreign companies left Tunisia after 2011 because … we spent five years investing in democracy,” Abdelkefi said. New foreign investment fell to 2 billion dinars ($885 million) in 2015 from 3.5 billion dinars in 2010.

Next month’s conference will make the case that after holding free elections and introducing a new constitution, Tunisia has essentially completed its political transition.

Parliament last month approved a long-delayed law to attract foreign investment, a reform demanded by international lenders. The law gives foreign investors more flexibility to transfer funds, including profits, out of the country, and removes tax on profits from major projects for 10 years.

It also establishes a fund that is to help finance infrastructure projects and encourage investors to launch big projects in marginalised areas of the country.

After its revolution, Tunisia sought aid from foreign donors to support its balance of payments and state budget, but Abdelkefi said it was now more interested in long-term investments that would develop industries and create jobs.

“We don’t need donations as much we need investments to revive our economy in this critical phase.”

Tunisia views its investment drive partly as a national security issue. The country has been the target of several high-profile militant attacks in the last several years, including attacks on foreign tourists.

“Investments will provide jobs to thousands of our frustrated youths and save them from the risk of falling into terrorist groups like Daesh,” Abdelkefi said, using an Arabic term for the Islamic State group.

“Europe and the United State should transform their political support of us into an economic bonus.”

(Editing by Andrew Torchia)

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CAIRO (Reuters) – Egypt will issue roughly $2 billion in international bonds, less than previously announced, and will begin a roadshow for the planned offering in the second or third week of November, Finance Minister Amr El Garhy said on Monday.

Egypt has been negotiating billions of dollars in aid from various lenders to help revive an economy battered by political upheaval since the 2011 revolt and ease a dollar shortage that has crippled import activity and hampered recovery.

Egypt said in August it planned to issue $3 billion to $5 billion in international bonds at the end of September.

Garhy told an American Chamber of Commerce event in Cairo that the bond was now likely to be marketed next month, and said later in the day that the amount would likely be lower than previously announced.

“We’re talking about $2 billion, give or take, but it will be in this range, depending on market circumstances,” Garhy said later on Monday during a television interview.

(Reporting by Asma AlSharif and Ali Abdelaty, Writing by Lin Noueihed and Eric Knecht; Editing by Catherine Evans)

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