The Central Bank of Nigeria plans to raise about N826.31bn ($5.26bn) worth in treasury bills, ranging between three months and one year in the first quarter of the year.
The CBN, in a statement on Friday, said it plans to auction N331.29bn naira in 91-day, 182-day and 364-day paper in January, N354.93bn naira in the same range of bills in February and N140.09bn of same range in March at its twice-monthly auction.
According to Reuters, offshore investors’ interest in local debt has surged since the JP Morgan included it in its emerging market government bond index last October. Barclays will add Nigerian debt to its index from March 2013.
Yields on the local debt have consistently been falling in the last two months owing to strong demand for the paper.
The Debt Management Office on Wednesday said it planned to raise between N210bn and N360bn in sovereign bonds ranging between five and 20 years in the first quarter of 2013.
The debt office said the amount being proposed was higher than its 2012 fourth quarter debt issuance and a greater amount than the debt issued in the corresponding period of last year.
The DMO had issued N209.76bn worth of FGN Bonds in the first quarter of 2012 – all in 10 year bonds to reduce funding pressure on the Federal Government.
Meanwhile, DMO has said that it plans to raise N110bn ($700.41m) in bonds with maturities ranging from five to 10 years at its first debt auction holding on Wednesday.
It said it would issue N35bn in the five-year paper, N30bn in seven-year notes and N45bn in the 10-year bonds using the Dutch Auction System.
