CBN returns with N700bn T-bills auction in September, leans heavily on one-year paper
By Aboki Forex —
The Central Bank of Nigeria will auction N700bn worth of treasury bills in September, continuing its liquidity management drive in the domestic debt market.
The offer, conducted on behalf of the Debt Management Office, will feature 91-day, 182-day and 364-day instruments. The CBN has set N100bn for the 91-day bill, another N100bn for the 182-day bill, and N500bn for the 364-day tenor.
Auction timeline and stop rate watch
Money market dealers are expected to submit bids through the CBN S4 Web Interface on 2 September 2026. The auction result is due the same day, and allotment is scheduled for 3 September. Successful investors must pay by 11:00 a.m. on the allotment date.
The make-up of the offer shows the CBN's preference for longer-dated instruments, as the 364-day bill takes over 70 per cent of the total. Investors are watching yields closely for any signal of a policy shift.
At the 26 August NTB auction, the CBN cut the stop rate on the one-year bill by 44 basis points to 17.15 per cent. That followed a hike to 17.59 per cent at the 12 August auction.
Q3 borrowing programme
September's offering is part of the N5.8tn Treasury-bills issuance programme for the third quarter of 2026. The 2 September auction is one of the final three NTB auctions in the Q3 programme, under which the DMO and CBN plan to issue N5.8tn in bills between July and September.
The programme includes N900bn through 91-day bills, N900bn through 182-day bills and N4tn through 364-day instruments. Bills worth N2.64tn are expected to mature during the quarter, leaving an estimated net borrowing requirement of around N3.16tn.
The CBN has also combined T-bills and Open Market Operations to mop up excess banking system liquidity.
Demand pressure remains strong
At the 12 August auction, investors submitted bids worth about N4.4tn against a N700bn offer. The 364-day instrument alone attracted N4.19tn in subscriptions, showing continued appetite for high-yielding government securities.
Cumulative allotments at the 12 August and 26 August auctions reached about N2.22tn, against a combined advertised offer of N1.4tn. That level of allotment has strengthened expectations that the apex bank may keep using government securities to absorb liquidity, even as markets anticipate a possible easing of monetary conditions.
What it means
The September auction will test the CBN's rate direction. For investors and businesses, the result will show whether short-term interest rates will keep falling or whether the bank holds its aggressive liquidity management stance.