The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has raised an estimated N10.4 trillion through the Nigerian Treasury Bills (NTBs) auctioned so far this year, representing 1.09 per cent drop from N10.52 trillion raised in the corresponding period of last year through the debt instrument source.
The latest ‘Primary Market’ data published by the apex bank showed that in the period under review, it offered N8.7 trillion NTBs, about 51.1 per cent increase over N5.73 trillion offered in the same period of 2024, indicating a growing investors’ demand for risk-free instruments.
According to the data, total subscription by investors to the offer stood at N28.37 trillion, about 13.2 per cent drop from N32.71 trillion in 2024 even as the spot rates on 91-Day NTBs dropped to 15 per cent as of September 2025 auction from 17 per cent September 2024.
A further analysis of the debt instruments market trend in the past months showed that investors’ demand for long maturities NTBs continued to grow as its stop rate reached 20.32 per cent as of Feb 5, 2025, representing the highest this year.
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As expected, the variation in stop rates across tenors gave insight into investor sentiment about the short, medium, and long-term outlook of the economy.
For instance, while the lower stop rate on the 182-day NTB bill suggested anticipation of stable interest rates, the higher stop rate on the 364-day NTB may symbolize a cautious stance of investors towards potential future uncertainties in the economy.
Similarly, the investors’ diversified demand trend across the different maturities of NTB indicated investors’ strategic positioning for various investment opportunities and highlighted the improving trading trends in the Nigerian debt market.
The apex bank’s data further revealed that the rate on 91-day NTB auction rate in December 2024 stood at 18 per cent, up from seven per cent in December 2023, while 182-day rose from 10 per cent in December 2023 to 18.5 per cent in December 2024.
Over the past months, the apex bank has been scaling back on elevated discount rates offered on NTBs due to strong investors’ demand and the benchmark interest rate which has been higher that the country’s headline inflation.
The headline inflation has now been slowing down in recent months due to a number of micro and macroeconomic factors, particularly the rebasing of the CPI by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) a few
Through its sustained hawkish monetary policy stance and large NTB auctions, the apex bank has been trying to moderate the rising headline inflation and stabilise the foreign exchange rate with a view to fostering the nation’s economic growth over the months.
These initiatives and the rebasing of the CPI have resulted in the easing of inflation rate, which ebbed to 20.12 per cent as of August 2025, the lowest rate since July 2022.
