Nigeria’s One-Year Treasury Bills Jump to 4%

By Dipo Olowookere

Sanity is gradually returning to the fixed income space, especially the treasury bills market as the yields are rising again after almost hitting the zero level.

On Wednesday, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) auctioned some of the debt instruments at the primary market and it was observed that the stop rates were raised during the session.

Like in the previous exercises, the bills were issued across three maturities; 91-day bill, 182-day bill and 364-day bill.

Business Post reports that N19.8 billion worth of the three-month tenor was offered for sale, N10.0 billion worth of the six-month tenor and N140.0 billion worth of the 12-month tenor were also auctioned.

As a result of the attractive yields in the space, investors maintained their high appetite for the instrument and this reflected in the level of participation.

It was observed that N30.6 billion worth of the short-term maturity was subscribed by investors, while subscriptions worth N21.9 billion were received for the mid-term maturity, with bids valued at N146.2 billion received for the long-term maturity.

However, for the allotment, the apex bank sold N24.7 billion of the 91-day bill, N16.1 billion of the 182-day bill and N90.2 billion of the 364-day bill.

For the stop rates, the CBN raised the 91-day bill to 1.00 per cent from 0.45 per cent, the stop rate of the 182-day bill was hiked to 2.00 per cent from 1.30 per cent, while the rate of the 364-day was moved higher to 4.00 per cent from 2.00 per cent.