The Central Bank of Nigeria plans to sell N1tn worth of Treasury bills in the fourth quarter of the year across three instruments.

The CBN, in its issue programme for the fourth programme released on Wednesday, said it would offer 91-day bills worth N90.62bn; 182-day bills worth N90.18bn and 364-day bills worth N821.84bn from September to December.

Last week, the CBN held one primary market auction and two Open Market Operations auctions.

Analysts at Afrinvest Securities Limited, in its latest weekly report, noted that at the PMA, there was a roll-over of N208.6bn in maturing Treasury bills across all maturities.

They said the CBN offered a total of N400bn on Thursday across three instruments to keep system liquidity in check in the face of huge maturities, adding that sales were underwhelming at N48.1bn (12 per cent of offer amount).

The CBN held another auction on Friday with a total offer of N400bn across 90-day, 188-day and 363-day instruments, with Treasury bills worth N222.1bn sold at stop rates of 11.6 per cent, 11.8 per cent and 13.5 per cent respectively.

“Investors remain unrelenting in the demand for higher rates, thus widening Nigeria’s risk premium,” Afrinvest Securities said.

Analysts at the Cordros Capital Limited said last Friday that activities in the Treasury bills secondary market were seemingly bullish as yields pared by 131 basis points to settle at 13.8 per cent.

They noted that yields pared as system liquidity level became elevated during last week.

According to them, further OMO maturities are expected this week which should keep demand levels elevated and result in the yields in the secondary market further paring.

“However, the trend in the stop rate rises in OMO auctions leads us to surmise that the CBN is firming up rates in the face of substantial capital flow reversals given increasing global risks,” the analysts added.