By Dipo Olowookere
On Wednesday, the federal government offered treasury bills worth N133.49 billion to investors at the market.
The exercise, which was conducted via primary market auction, recorded a huge success because of the response it received from market players.
Apart from the 3-month tenor bill, the two other papers were well oversubscribed by investors, whose appetite for high yields with less risk showed.
However, this huge demand for the debt instrument issued by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Debt Management Office (DMO) on behalf of the federal government dropped the average stop rates down by 0.18 percent from their previous auction level two weeks ago.
While the 91-day bill rate cleared at 10.90 percent, the 182-day bill cleared at 12.10 percent and the 364-day bill cleared at 13.33 percent.
Business Post reports that from the N133.49 billion T-bills offered to investors yesterday, the apex bank received subscriptions worth N438.44 billion, resulting in an oversubscription of N304.95 billion, with the bank eventually selling the amount it auctioned at the exercise.
A breakdown showed that the central bank received subscriptions worth N9.52 billion of the same amount of the 91-day bill offered, N31.44 billion worth of the N17.60 billion 182-day bill, and N397.48 billion of the N106.37 billion 364-day bill auctioned.
Another PMA is slated for two weeks’ time and investors would be anticipated a slight hike in the rates.
