By Dipo Olowookere
The Nigerian government sold treasury bills to investors at the primary market on Wednesday, April 13, 2022, and from analysis, the investment tool attracted interest across the three tenors offered for sale.
However, the 364-day bill, as usual, caught the attention of investors the most during the session, followed by the 182-day note and the 91-day paper.
The exercise was conducted by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), with N2.2 billion offered for the short-term bill, N7.0 billion offered for sale for the mid-term bill and N132.1 billion offered for the long-term bill.
It was observed that investors staked N227.6 billion on the one-year instrument, indicating a subscription rate of 172.3 per cent. But the apex bank allotted N144.0 billion to subscribers at a stop rate of 4.60 per cent, 0.15 per cent higher than the 4.45 per cent it cleared at the previous primary market auction (PMA).
As for the six-month instrument, investors bid N20.9 billion, showing a subscription rate of 298.6 per cent but the bank sold N10.6 billion at a flat rate of 3.00 per cent.
A look at the three-month maturity showed that N11.9 billion worth of bids were submitted, indicating a 540.9 per cent subscription rate. However, the central bank allotted N4.5 billion, with the stop rate clearing at 1.74 per cent, 0.01 per cent lower than the 1.75 per cent it cleared at the last exercise.
Business Post reports that the T-bills environment is still battling with low-interest rates despite the bond space witnessing an uptick in coupon rates to attract more investors.
The continued hunger for treasury bills, especially because of the tenors, is still the saving grace as investors prefer to lock their short-term funds in the bills.
Adedapo Adesanya 
Modupe Gbadeyanka