Investors Offer Nigeria N468bn for N266bn Treasury Bills

By Dipo Olowookere

The Nigerian government was at the local debt market on Wednesday, July 29, 2020, to seek for funds through the sale of some treasury bills.

Business Post reports that the exercise, conducted by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for the Debt Management Office (DMO), was largely successful.

This was because the local authorities, which intended to borrow about N266 billion yesterday, had lenders willing to put down N468 billion for the instrument.

The bills were auctioned in three different maturities with N49.8 billion worth of 91-day instrument, N54.6 billion worth of 182-day instrument and N161.5 billion worth of 364-day instrument.

But when the bids from investors were analysed, N94.4 billion was staked on the short-term maturity, N158.8 billion was put on the mid-term tenor, while the long-term bill received N215.1 billion bids.

This further indicated that the hunger for the T-bills remained high despite the low stop rates when compared with the present inflation rate of 12.56 per cent.

After the exercise, the central bank allotted the exact amount it offered for the respective maturity, but the rates were tampered with again.

But this time, the stop rate for the 364-day bill was raised to 3.40 per cent from 3.35 per cent.

However, the rate for the 91-day bill was lowered to 1.20 per cent from 1.30 per cent, while the one for the 182-day bill was reduced to 1.50 per cent from 1.80 per cent.