The Federal Government on Thursday said it planned to auction treasury bills worth N149.27bn ($926.42m) at its regular debt auction next week. The Central Bank of Nigeria in a statement said it would sell N49.27bn in 91-day paper, and N50bn each in 182-day treasury bills and 364-day bills next Wednesday, using the Dutch Auction System.

The statement said, “Each bid must be in multiples of N1,000 subject to a minimum of 10,000.”

The Federal Government issues treasury bills regularly as part of measures to reduce money supply, curb inflation and help banks manage their liquidity and had earlier said that it would auction N89.75bn ($556.93m) worth of 10-year sovereign bonds with different maturity dates at its first monthly debt auction of the year.

The Debt Management Office said it would sell N19.75bn in bonds due to mature in May 2018, and N35bn each of bonds due in October 2019 and January 2022.The debt office added that the bonds were reopening of previous issues, but the January 2022 issue was a fresh paper.

It added that the Federal Government planned to raise between N129.75bn and N239.75bn in 10-year sovereign bonds in the first quarter of 2012, noting that the action was a major step to plug the revenue gap in 2012.

The DMO said, “The debt office will auction between N79.75bn and N99.75bn in 10-year bonds of various maturity dates in January, N60bn to N80bn in February and N50bn to N60bn in March of the same tenor respectively.”

DMO also pointed out that all the papers were reopening of those previously issued, except for the issue of N30bn to N40bn fresh paper in January.The debt office had discontinued the issuance of lower tenor papers of three and five-year in the third quarter of last year and concentrated on the 10-year instrument as part of its debt restructuring measures.

Source: Punch/Ademola Alawiye