The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), acting for the Debt Management Office (DMO), will hold a ₦700 billion primary-market auction of Nigerian Treasury Bills (NTB) on Wednesday, August 12, 2026. The move comes one week after the CBN withdrew a similarly sized ₦700 billion NTB auction scheduled for August 5, citing the need to avoid overheating liquidity conditions.
Auction structure and key dates
The August 12 session will offer three tenors under a Dutch auction system, with bids submitted electronically via the CBN’s S4 Web Interface between 8:00 a.m. and 11:00 a.m. on Wednesday.
- 91-day NTB: ₦100 billion
- 182-day NTB: ₦100 billion
- 364-day NTB: ₦500 billion
- Total offer: ₦700 billion
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Results will be announced on August 12, with allotment letters issued and settlement due by 11:00 a.m. on Thursday, August 13.
Market context: maturities and issuance calendar
The auction is among the largest in the CBN’s third-quarter issuance plan, which features multiple ₦700 billion sessions. It also coincides with significant near-term liquidity pressures: Cordros Securities estimates about ₦1.58 trillion in Open Market Operations (OMO) maturities falling due this week, according to its August 7 weekly report.
Recent auctions have seen strong demand, especially for the 364-day bill. In late July, the CBN offered ₦700 billion but received subscriptions of roughly ₦3.62 trillion, driven largely by the one-year tenor, and ultimately allotted about ₦1.25 trillion across all tenors.
Bidding rules for dealers and investors
Authorised Money Market Dealers must submit bids in multiples of ₦1,000, with a minimum subscription of ₦50,001,000. Dealers may bid for their own accounts or on behalf of non-dealers and members of the public, and multiple bids are permitted.
By returning to the primary market so soon after canceling an auction, the CBN/DMO is signaling a calibrated approach to domestic debt financing: tapping strong investor appetite while managing system liquidity amid large OMO roll-offs. For fixed-income investors, the heavy weighting on the 364-day bill continues the recent bias toward longer-dated paper in a high-rate environment.
Nairametrics
