By Dipo Olowookere
Treasury bills worth N90.94 billion are expected to be auctioned on Wednesday, June 10, 2020 (today) by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
The exercise, to be conducted by the apex bank in the land through a Dutch auction system, will take place at the primary market.
Details of the proposed sales showed that the bills would be offered across the usual three maturities; 91-day, 182-day and 364-day bills.
Business Post reports that the total of N90.9 billion T-bills to be auctioned at the PMA today are all maturing.
According to the CBN, it will offer for sale N1.80 billion worth of the three-month bill, N4.50 billion of the six-month instrument and N84.64 billion worth of the 12-month bills.
For the stop rates, analysts are not certain which direction the central bank will take, but a slightly cut is expected in the long-dated instrument.
At the last exercise, the bank sold the 91-day bill at 2.45 percent, the 182-day bill at 2.72 percent and the 364-day bill at 4.02 percent.
Treasury bills have become one of the safest forms of investment in Nigeria. This has made many investors to embrace it, anticipating PMAs by the bank.
Government sells the debt instrument to source for funds to finance budget deficit and recently, the amount to be raised from the sale was increased due to the global health crisis, which frustrated external borrowing.
The National Assembly, while the world was battling coronavirus, approved the local borrowing request of N850 billion of President Muhammadu Buhari.
Adedapo Adesanya