ABUJA, FEBRUARY 3, 2018 – The Federal Government raised 252.88 billion at a treasury bill auction last Wednesday as investors piled demand into the higher yielding one-year debt, traders said yesterday. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) sold N177.22 billion of one-year debt at a rate of 13.7 percent.
It auctioned N6.09 billion of three-month debt at 12 percent, and N69.57 billion of six-month maturity debt at 13.65 percent. Total subscription stood at N355.2 billion. Traders said some offshore funds participated at the auction, helping boost dollar liquidity on the currency window for investors to keep naira rates stable.
The Apex bank has maintained tightened liquidity to attract foreign buyers. T he Debt Management Office (DMO) has said it plans to raise $2.5 billion through Eurobonds in the first quarter to refinance a portion of its domestic treasury bill portfolio at lower cost.
It repaid N198 billion worth of treasury bills last December, instead of rolling them over, to lower costs. Investors bid as high as 18.5 percent for the one-year paper. However, the government has been offering debt at lower yields to track declining inflation, which fell for the eleventh straight month in December, to 15.37 percent.
