…Investors submit ₦1.03 trillion in bids at Treasury bill auction, more than double offer, as longer-tenor yield edges higher
WED OCT 14 2026-theGBJournal| Nigeria’s Treasury bill yields edged higher at Wednesday’s primary market auction, with the 364-day stop rate rising by five basis points to 15.90%, even as investor demand exceeded the Debt Management Office’s (DMO) offer by more than twofold.
The DMO offered ₦450 billion across the 91-day, 182-day and 364-day instruments but received total bids of ₦1.03 trillion, reflecting a bid-to-offer ratio of 2.3 times.
It ultimately allotted ₦269.06 billion, with the bid-to-cover ratio reaching 3.8 times.
The yield adjustment was concentrated at the long end of the curve, where the 364-day stop rate increased from 15.85% to 15.90%.
Rates on the 91-day and 182-day bills remained unchanged at 15.50% and 15.80%, respectively.
The auction outcome points to sustained investor appetite for government securities, although the marginal increase in the one-year yield suggests investors continued to seek slightly higher returns on longer-dated Treasury bills.
In the secondary market, Treasury bills traded with a bearish undertone, pushing the average yield up one basis point to 17.9%.
The short end of the curve recorded a four-basis-point expansion, driven by sell-offs in the 22-day-to-maturity bill, whose yield rose by 61 basis points.
Yields at the mid- and long-end segments each declined by one basis point, supported by demand for bills with 176 and 358 days to maturity.
Open Market Operations (OMO) bills also came under pressure, with the average yield rising 10 basis points to 18.7%.
Meanwhile, liquidity conditions in the banking system remained relatively comfortable, with the overnight lending rate declining 29 basis points to 20.4% in the absence of significant funding pressure.
The bond market, however, recorded broader selling pressure. Average yields on Federal Government of Nigeria bonds rose 17 basis points to 16.1%, reflecting increases across the short, medium and long segments of the benchmark curve.
Short-dated bonds led the sell-off, with yields in the segment rising 42 basis points, driven by a sharp 192-basis-point increase in the March 2027 bond yield.
Yields on the medium- and long-dated segments rose by one and seven basis points, respectively, as the June 2033 and January 2042 bonds also came under pressure.
The contrasting movements across the fixed-income market suggest that while investors continued to show strong demand at the Treasury bill auction, secondary-market positioning remained cautious, particularly in government bonds and OMO instruments.
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