By Modupe Gbadeyanka
Treasury bills worth N809.4 billion would be offered to investors in the third quarter of 2019, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has disclosed.
In a circular, which shows the Nigeria Treasury Bills Issue programme, the apex bank said the debt instruments would be offered in three maturities; 91-day, 182-day and 364-day.
The exercise has been planned to begin from June 13 to August 29, 2019, but the stop rates should be determined by the prevailing market conditions.
Business Post reports that as at the last exercise, which took place yesterday, the 91-day bill cleared at 10 percent, the 182-day bill at 11.95 percent and the 364-day bill at 12.34 percent.
A breakdown of the planned sale showed that the apex bank will issue N80.62 billion worth of the 91-day treasury bills, N154.04 billion worth of the 182-day instrument and N574.71 billion worth of the 364-day bill in Q3 2019.
A further analysis indicated that in June 2019, the CBN will auction N147.25 billion worth of the treasury bills, N195.91 billion in July and N446.2 billion in August.
Government, through the apex bank, issue treasury bills to investors so as to raise funds for some programmes. The debt instruments are also issued to control the flow of cash in the financial system.
Treasury bills are mainly short-term debt instruments, usually less than a year, issued to investors to borrow money by government.