By Dipo Olowookere
Worried by the exit of foreign portfolio investors from the nation’s economy, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Wednesday offered attractive rates to participants of the first sale of treasury bills at the primary market this month.
During the exercise, the apex bank offered the debt instrument worth N158.7 billion to market players in three maturities; N15 billion worth of the 91-day bill, N14 billion worth of the 182-day bill and N129.7 billion worth of the 364-day bill.
Business Post reports that apart from the short-dated instrument, which had its stop rate unchanged, stop rates of the mid and long-dated bills were hiked by the bank at the PMA.
Details of the exercise showed that the central bank allotted the exact amount of the bills it auctioned for each tenor despite receiving more subscriptions across the three maturities.
Of the N15 billion worth of the 91-day bill it offered for sale, the bank got subscriptions valued at N32.2 billion; of the N14 billion worth of the 182-day bill, it received offers worth N24.2 billion; and of the N129.7 billion worth of the 364-day bill auctioned, the apex bank had subscriptions valued at N269.4 billion.
However, as earlier stated, it allotted N15 billion worth of the 91-day bill at 11.10 percent, same as in the last PMA on August 28, 2019; N14 billion worth of the 182-day bill at 11.80 percent, higher than 11.59 percent at the previous PMA; and N129.7 billion worth of the 364-day bill at 13.29 percent, higher than 12.89 percent at the previous exercise.
Adedapo Adesanya