But Africa's largest oil producer was forced to accept higher borrowing costs, as investors demanded higher yields amid the uncertainty swirling around credit markets. Some investors had also raised concerns about Nigeria's fiscal health, noting that the size of the country's rainy-day fund has declined sharply in recent months.
Nigeria sold bonds in two chunks of $500 million each. The 10-year bonds were priced to yield 6.625%, according to bankers on the deal. The five-year bonds carried a yield of 5.375%. Bond yields and prices move in opposite directions.
Yields on Nigeria's debt are significantly higher than they were just a few months ago. In January, yields on a Nigerian government bond that pays 6.75% interest and matures in 2021 hit a record low of 3.67%, according to FactSet.
Worries about the U.S. Federal Reserve reining in its economic stimulus have caused bond prices to fall and yields to rise across the board. That prompted investors to pull out of some high-yielding assets, a shift that contributed to a rout across many emerging markets in past weeks.
Nigeria's ability to complete a bond deal shows that investors are still open to these relatively risky assets, although they are demanding higher returns.
"It is a very strong statement for Nigeria to be among the first within emerging-market countries to have market access in the middle of this global credit stress," said Jean-Charles Sambor, a managing director at Everest Capital LLC, an investment firm managing $1.8 billion of assets in markets where securities aren't regularly traded and are considered to be very risky. Mr. Sambor declined to say whether he had invested in the new bonds.
Since September, several African countries have tapped global bond markets for the first time as investors scrambled for higher yields.
Fitch Ratings on Tuesday said it expected to rate the new Nigerian bond BB-minus, in the middle of the "junk" category.
Nigerian officials finished making presentations to investors on Thursday, but waited two days before launching the sale.
While Nigeria's oil industry is a source of support for the economy, it also exposes the country to commodity-price volatility. According to the International Monetary Fund, taxes and other levies on oil companies account for about 75% of government revenues.
In a recent report on Nigeria, the IMF said that a prolonged downturn in the global economy could spell trouble for Nigeria.
Nigerian Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala in early June said the amount of money in the country's Excess Crude Account, a reserve fund where some oil-related revenues are channeled, had fallen from $9 billion at the end of 2012 to $6 billion.
She attributed the decline to problems with replenishing the fund. Nigeria's oil supplies are often disrupted by theft and the breakdown of dilapidated infrastructure.
—Sarah Kent and Prabha Natarajan contributed to this article.
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