CBN Upgrades Treasury Bills Offer Size, Adds New Auction
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has increased its primary market auction raise for December to N1.45 trillion despite a relatively weak subscription recorded at midweek.
This happened as the authority upgraded its December auction plan with the introduction of a new offer size, while a date not in the existing calendar has been added.
On Wednesday, the CBN floated a Treasury bill auction totalling N700 billion across standard tenors of 91 days, 182 days and 364 days.
The auction result showed that ₦709.6 billion was allotted from the total subscription of N775 billion reported, and the 364-day tenor cleared sharply higher at 17.50% than the previous auction.
Investors were practically not interested in treasury bills across the short and belly of the curve, whose subscription accounted for 10% of the total bids.
Appetite for long tenor remained heavy, and a weak bid-to-offer ratio forced the CBN to jerk up the spot rate on 364 days bills to 17.50% from 16.04% – a surprise move that keeps the market guessing.
Broadstreet analysts had expected spot rates to be tempered, a projection anchored on disinflation, significant liquidity levels in the banking system and sustained demand for naira assets.
Investors turned the treasury bills space to a seller market on Thursday. Activity slowed after the authority increased the next auction size to ₦1.45 trillion, pushing the new long-dated bill to 17.00% discount rate.
In the NTB space, trading was concentrated on the newly issued 3-Dec bill, as investors took advantage of its higher-than-expected stop rate by stepping in to buy at attractive levels.
This led to a downward repricing of its rate, with the bill now offered at around 17.0%. Overall, average yields closed lower at 16.95% (-3 bps).
The CBN added a new auction scheduled for December 10, 2025, with an offer size of ₦750 billion. Also, there is an upward revision of the December 17, 2025, auction size from ₦365 billion to ₦700 billion
“Near-term activity should stay concentrated in the 3-Dec paper, as its favourable stop rate continues to attract buyers ahead of the expanded December auction schedule,” TrustBanc Financial Group Limited said. Naira for Dollar Rate Drops Slightly in Forex Markets
