By Modupe Gbadeyanka
A total of N359.2 billion was used by the federal government to redeem treasury bills from the month of April 2018 to June 2018, the Debt Management Office (DMO) has revealed.
This information was revealed in the ‘Actual Domestic Debt Service’ report released by the debt office last week for the second quarter of this year.
According to the DMO, during the period under review, the sum of N656.6 billion was spent by the Nigerian government to service local debts.
This is against the N923.3 billion used for servicing domestic debts from January to March this year, bringing the total amount already spent for such purpose in the January to June 2018 to N1.6 trillion.
A breakdown showed that N156.1 billion was paid as interest on treasury bills payment, N130.9 billion for FGN Bonds interest payment and N9.4 billion to pay interest on Treasury Bonds.
In addition, an interest of N257.7 million was spent on FGN Savings Bond, while interest on FGN Green Bond gulped N718.5 million.
This brings the total interest paid in the second quarter of 2018 to N297.4 billion, while the treasury bills redemption swallowed N359 billion.
The Nigerian government regularly approves the treasury bills market to borrow money from investors.
Business Post reports that tomorrow, treasury bills worth N364.33 billion will mature via the secondary market, which is expected to ease financial system liquidity with resultant moderation in interbank rates.
