The Central Bank of Nigeria achieved a groundbreaking feat by selling a record N1 trillion worth of treasury bills at its Wednesday auction. This unprecedented sale took place ahead of the February 26 and 27 Monetary Policy Committee meeting. The auction marked a substantial increase in the volume of treasury bills, with N1 trillion up for grabs. Notably, N600 billion was allocated for the 364-day bills, while N200 billion each was earmarked for the 182-day and 91-day bills.
The N600 billion designated for the 364-day tenure represents an unparalleled figure, and the cumulative N1 trillion sale is unmatched in the records dating back to 2001. In the previous month’s auction, the CBN had sold treasury bills amounting to N381.2 billion across various maturities of 91, 182, and 364 days. The interest rates for these maturities were recorded at 5 percent for the 91-day bills, 7.15 percent for the 182-day bills, and 11.54 percent for the 364-day bills, correspondingly.
Simultaneously, Nigeria’s money supply stood at over N78 trillion as of December 2023, a factor that many analysts attribute to the nation’s escalating inflation, which reached 28.92 percent in December.
