By Dipo Olowookere
The stop rates of treasury bills were further increased by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) at the primary market on Wednesday.
The apex bank had in recent time been raising the annual interest rate of the financial asset, resulting in renewed interest from investors, who waste no time to pounce on any available risk-free investment tool with high yields.
Yesterday, the bank offered N128.3 billion worth of T-bills to investors via the PMA across three tenors, with N20.4 billion auctioned for the 91-day bill, N55.9 billion for the 182-day bill and N52.0 billion for the 364-day bill.
Business Post reports that much of the bids were tilted towards the longer-tenor, with lower interest in the short-term and mid-term maturities. In fact, the mid-term bill was undersubscribed.
The results of the exercise showed that N27.6 billion was staked on the 91-day tenor, N40.1 billion was staked on the 182-day tenor, while N124.4 billion was staked on the 364-day tenor, amounting to N192.1 billion.
However, the central bank allotted N24.2 billion for the 3-month bill, N32.7 billion for the 6-month bill and N90.4 billion for the 12-month bill, totalling N147.3 billion, N19 billion more than it brought to the market.
For the stop rates, the CBN sold the 91-day bill at 2.00 per cent, higher than the previous 1.00 per cent. The 182-day bill cleared at 3.5 per cent, higher than the previous 2.00 per cent, while the 364-day instrument cleared at 5.50 per cent, higher than the previous 4.00 per cent.
Adedapo Adesanya