Nigeria’s central state of Nasarawa has issued a 5 billion naira seven-year bond, under a 20 billion naira infrastructure finance programme, at 15 percent, the issuing houses said.

Nasarawa state, which has a population of 2 million people, raised the funds to mature on January 6, 2021, the advisers said in a notice, noting that the bond was fully underwritten.

“The offer was 100 percent subscribed by the underwriter,” said the issuing houses – Nigeria’s Dunn Loren Merrifield and the local unit of South Africa’s Standard Bank.

Nasarawa is one of several states in sub-Saharan Africa’s second biggest economy to have launched bonds since last year as risk appetite wanes and Nigerian fund managers switch to fixed income from equities.

The switch has been partly intended to hedge against losses from to a stock market correction in the wake of the U.S. Federal Reserve’s tapering of its stimulus package, which had kept emerging markets awash with cash.

The Nigerian stock market surged 47 percent in 2013.

Source: Reuters