As the pressure on federal revenue mounts following steady decline in oil revenue, the Federal Government would be resorting to a Sukuk Bond for funding the widening budget deficit, Vanguard reports. Sukuk is a financial certificate, similar to the traditional government bond, but complies with Sharia, Islamic religious law.

The Debt Management Office, DMO, and Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC, are collaborating in an effort to issue the Nigerian sovereign Islamic bonds this year.

Details of the expected revenue from the bond is not yet disclosed but officials said they expect significant bridging of the 2016 budget deficit which has exceeded the initial N2.2 trillion estimate.

According to DMO “issuing a sovereign Sukuk will attract significant amounts of affordable capital from the Gulf countries and other established Islamic markets around the world into Nigeria.”