Nigeria sells N507.1 billion T-bills in August as CPs rise by 276%

The Debt Management Office (DMO) sold treasury bills (T-bills) valued at ₦507.1 billion across its auctions in August 2024. The figure represented a month-on-month (MoM) increase of 82 per cent over N277.9 billion recorded in July 2024.

Similarly, the DMO sold FGN bonds worth ₦374.8 billion within the same period representing a 66.03 per cent increase on N225.7 billion sold in July 2024.

According to the FMDQ Securities Exchange Financial Market Monthly Report, sovereign securities offered by the DMO in its FGN bond auctions were oversubscribed by 142.20 per cent.

However, only 81 per cent of T-bills were sold, despite the 141.8 per cent oversubscription recorded during the review period.

Also in August 2024, the CBN sold OMO bills worth ₦1,627.46 billion, compared to July 2024 when the CBN did not conduct any public OMO Bills auction in the primary market.

Further breakdown of the report showed that two corporate bonds worth ₦62.4 billion were listed on FMDQ Exchange in August 2024, as such the value of non-sovereign bonds outstanding increased to ₦2,254.42 billion.

In addition, the total value of Commercial Papers (CPs) quoted on the FMDQ Exchange in August 2024 hit ₦66.9 billion, representing a MoM increase of 276.23 per cent from N17.8 billion quoted in July 2024. In August 2024, quoted CPs were issued by institutions from the manufacturing sector, followed by the financial services, agriculture retail and Health sectors.

The outstanding value for CPs decreased MoM by 28.82 per cent to ₦635.9 billion in August 2024 due to the ₦324.4 billion worth of CPs that matured during the review period.

On the Foreign Exchange (FX) Derivatives Market, total turnover in the segment was $1.75 billion in August, representing a MoM decrease of 8.39 per cent from July 2024 figures ($1.91 billion).

FMDQ said the MoM decrease in the FX derivatives turnover was driven by the 8.50 per cent and 5.12 per cent decrease in FX Swaps and FX Forwards transactions, whilst the FX Futures market remained inactive during the review period.

For the secondary market, total turnover hits ₦40.43 trillion, representing a MoM increase of 31.9 per cent and a Year on Year increase of 128.6 per cent from July 2024 and August 2023 figures, respectively. Foreign Exchange (FX) and Money Market (MM) transactions dominated secondary market activity jointly accounting for 69.9 per cent of the total secondary market turnover in August 2024.