CBN targets N700bn as treasury bills auction resumes
Maturing OMO bills worth N1.58tn set to drive fresh demand Wednesday
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) will return to the primary market on Wednesday with a N700 billion Nigerian Treasury Bills (NTB) auction, a week after cancelling a similar offer to avoid overtightening system liquidity.
The auction, conducted on behalf of the Debt Management Office (DMO), will run across three tenors on the CBN’s S4 web interface, with bids open from 8:00am to 11:00am on August 12. Settlement is expected on August 13.
Of the N700 billion on offer, the 364-day bill accounts for N500 billion, or 71.4% of the total, underscoring the apex bank’s continued preference for longer-dated short-term paper. The 91-day and 182-day tranches will each raise N100 billion.
The sale will be conducted via a Dutch auction system, with a minimum bid of N50,001,000 and subsequent bids in multiples of N1,000. Participation is open to Money Market Dealers and members of the public through dealer institutions.
The CBN and DMO pulled a similar N700 billion auction on August 5, days after mopping up N4.69 trillion through Open Market Operations (OMO) between August 3 and 4. The withdrawal was aimed at preventing a double squeeze on liquidity already tightened by the OMO exercise.
This week’s auction comes as N1.58 trillion in OMO bills mature, according to Cordros Securities, a development analysts say could channel fresh cash into the treasury bills market and support demand.
The auction is one of six large N700 billion NTB sales planned for the third quarter of 2026, as the CBN continues an aggressive liquidity mop-up that saw it drain N7.18 trillion from banks via OMO in July alone.
Market watchers will be looking closely at stop rates, particularly on the 364-day bill, to see whether the recent downward trend holds or reverses as fresh liquidity enters the system.
Demand from banks and institutional investors with maturing OMO funds to redeploy will also be in focus, as the CBN continues to balance excess liquidity management against the government’s funding needs.
