The Debt Management Office says the Federal Government savings bond has recorded a total of N13.44bn investment since its inception in March 2017.

According to data presented at the Retail Bond Workshop at the Nigerian Stock Exchange in Lagos on Tuesday, 431 corporate firms invested N1.75bn while 15,822 individuals invested N11.75bn, which brings the total amount of investment recorded to N13.44bn.

The Head, Market Development, DMO, Mr Monday Usiade, said though individual investors accounted for 87.06 per cent of the total investment, that figure was far from satisfactory and there was a lot that needed to be done to attract more investors.

Usiade, who was represented by Ms Bose Olafisoye, said the 77 per cent of the investors were from the South-West.

Giving further details about the geographical distribution of investors, he added that eight per cent of investors were from the Federal Capital Territory and South-South, respectively, four per cent from South-East and foreign investors, respectively, and three per cent from North-East and North Central.

Usiade added that Jigawa and Yobe states recorded zero subscription, while Lagos, FCT, Oyo and Ogun contributed 75.54 per cent of the total investment.

He said, “Eleven distribution agents have not remitted any amount to the DMO from inception. Such agents that are yet to submit subscriptions in all the auctions as well as other DAs with marginal returns till the end of the year may be de-registered.

“Given the analysis of the performance of the DAs, there is a need for them to improve on their performance in order to meet stated objectives.”

Usiade added that though modest progress had been made, the FGN savings bond was far from achieving its stated objectives.