Back in 2017, when I was still teething as a newbie economist, a particular form of government borrowing caught my attention.
Eurobonds.
The exciting link to a certain fictional British spy aside, I was keen to understand how borrowing from international markets will affect a country's economy. Who were the entities rich enough to lend entire countries this money? What will the debt cost the country? How long do governments typically have to pay back? And ultimately, how can the Nigerian government prove to foreign investors that the country is worth lending to, considering the country's weakening currency.
We would be getting to the answers to these questions in a bit. But before I go into all of that, let's start with another question.
Why are we talking about this now?
Eurobonds have had popular moments among African countries. These countries typically have a high borrowing appetite for funding large-scale government projects like infrastructure. Essentially, eurobonds offer
