CBN Shortens 364-Day T-Bills to 1.14% from 3.20%

By Dipo Olowookere

The stop rate of 364-day treasury bill was reduced by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Wednesday a week after it was increased at the primary market auction (PMA).

Two weeks ago, the apex bank surprisingly pushed the rate higher to 3.20 per cent from 1.15 per cent, giving many analysts the intention that the action was to retain the interests of investors in the market.

But yesterday, when another T-bills sale occurred, the rate went down to 1.14 per cent, though the amount the central bank auctioned was very low.

Three tenors of the debt instruments were offered for sale by the apex bank with N2.0 billion auctioned for the 91-day bill, another N2.0 billion auctioned for the 182-day bill and N3.0 billion auctioned for the 364-day bill.

As expected, subscriptions for the financial assets were huge as the appetite for the risk-free investment tool remained high.

A total of N18.2 billion was bid for the 3-month instrument, N10.3 billion was offered for the 6-month instrument, while N93.1 billion was bid for the 12-month instrument. This indicated that subscribers offered a total of N121.6 billion for the N5.0 billion the CBN auctioned, representing a subscription level of 2,432 per cent.

Business Post reports that the central allotted a total of N7.0 billion, with N1.5 billion sold for the 91-day bill, N1.7 billion sold for the 182-day bill and N3.8 billion sold for the 364-day bill.

For the stop rates, the short-term instrument cleared at 0.05 per cent versus the 0.01 per cent it cleared last week. The stop rate for the mid-term bill cleared at 0.50 per cent, lower than 0.60 per cent of the previous exercise, while the long-term tenor dropped to 1.14 per cent from 3.20 per cent.

One interesting scenario that played out yesterday was that during the exercise, some investors bid for the one-year maturity at 10.00 per cent.

According to details of the PMA, the range of the rates investors requested to buy the 91-day bill was between 0.01 per cent and 1.80 per cent, while the 182-day had between 0.03 per cent and 2.98 per cent, with the 364-day bill having between 0.49 per cent and 10.00 per cent.