| Work Detail |
GOVERNMENT, in conjunction with the Central Bank of Swaziland (CBS), has launched the inaugural E2 billion infrastructure bond programme and marked a new era of public-private partnership.
GOVERNMENT, in conjunction with the Central Bank of Swaziland (CBS), has launched the inaugural E2 billion infrastructure bond programme and marked a new era of public-private partnership.
According to a statement issued by the CBS, the first bond under the E2 billion infrastructure bond programme will be issued on July 26 and will be open for both local and overseas investors.
“This is expected to run between three and five years, wherein government will be tapping into the market at regular intervals when there is a need to finance the projects in the prospectus,” said Minister of Finance Martin Dlamini in the statement.
The project sectors to be financed under the programme include Micro-Projects, the Technology Park, Roads Infrastructure and Nhlangano Water Supply.
The construction activities to be financed under Micro-Projects include the construction of lower level and foot bridges, rural electrification schemes and rural water supply.
Technology Park construction activities will include procurement, installation and configuration of the oracle public cloud, appliance and data switching equipment, connecting the national data centre to communications data lines, network re-engineering of government network system to link to the national data centre design as well as construction and supervision of 6.5 kilometres palisade fencing of the Innovation Park.
The listed roads infrastructure projects are the T497-Lot Mphandze-Manzini, T515-Lot 1 construction, compensation or supervision.
venture
Dlamini said the drive to venture into the programme was informed by investors appetite during the road shows which were part of the book building exercise prior to issuance of government securities.
He said this would run concurrently with the normal issuance programme as both issuances play different roles towards the development of the economy.
“The plain vanilla bonds are meant to create the yield curve for the market and are used as a benchmark for pricing by potential borrowers when they source funds in the capital markets. This programme is mainly focused on the development of the financial markets,” he said.
The minister said funding from the infrastructure bond programme will be used to finance the targeted infrastructure projects in key sectors of the economy that support investment and employment creation.
He invited all investors to actively participate in the attempt to develop the country’s economy.
“It is our interest and the entire Swazi nation to see our economy grow and reach the level of other more developed economies. I urge you all to work together as we meet our King’s Vision, which is to attain the first world status by 2022,” said Dlamini. |
