Nigeria To Raise N223 Bln Via Treasury Bills Sales

Nigeria will on Wednesday sell N223 billion worth of Treasury Bills at an ongoing auction at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) dealing room to raise cash to finance part of the country's budget deficit.
The bank will be selling on behalf of the government N28 billion worth of the 91-day bills, N10.6 billion of the 182-day paper and N93.9 billion of the 1-year note, using Dutch Auction System.
The bid is open to all class of onshore and offshore investors: Individuals, Corporates, Banks, Non-Bank Financial Institutions (NBFIs) as well as foreign portfolio investors.

Traders at Citibank Nigeria said they expect that the 91-days will close in the 10.00-10.25 percent range, 182-days around 10.50 to 10.75 percent and the 364-day paper to clear in the 11.50-11.75 percent range.
The CBN had last week barred individuals and corporate investors from participating in the Open Market Operations (OMO) auction in a bid to reduce pressure on its shareholder's fund, which was the victims of the huge expenditure being used to fund the liquidity mop-up mechanism.
In a bid to support the value of the local currency, the CBN has been selling treasury bills on the OMO auction to offshore investors to increase dollar flows into the country and other investors to reduce system liquidity.
However, analysts said the operations have consistently eroded the regulatory bank's shareholder's fund, putting the bank under pressure.

Nigeria sell treasury bills regularly to raise cash to support government budget spending and plug part of the country's spending estimate's deficit.