CBN to sell N123bn T-bills Wednesday

The Central Bank of Nigeria will sell N123 billion worth of Treasury bills on Wednesday to mop up liquidity even as the rates in the secondary market in the last one week have remained relatively stable from previous weeks.

According to analysts at Capital Bancorp, due to current market conditions, rates at the primary auction may close around what was in the secondary market.

CBN data on its website show that it will auction N91 day-bill at 13.5 per cent worth N45.18 billion, N182 days bill at 16.8 per cent worth CBN to sell N123bn T-bills on Wednesday N23.4billion and N365 days bill at 17.5 per cent worth N54.4billion.

The auction will be bided through the Primary Dealer and Market Maker. According to Capital Bancorp, the pooling of bids is necessitated as a result of challenges encountered by the PDMMs in processing a single client’s Treasury bill bid from start to finish on the CBN platform.

According Capital Bancorp, “Therefore, this approach is being adopted to improve efficiency and serve you better. CBP however does not commit that the bid rates proposed above will be successful. Notwithstanding, we would continue to seek alternative investment opportunities to meet your investment needs”.

It will be recalled that the CBN on August 3, raised N245.18 billion ($773.44 million) worth of T-bills to settle short-term obligations. The CBN issued N45.18 billion in three-month debt, N80 billion of six-month paper and N120 billion of one year bills in a Dutch auction.