Feb 19, 2015/Reuters

The yield on Nigeria’s one-year Treasury bills rose at an auction where a total 142.43 billion naira ($722.99 million) was raised, the Debt Management Office (DMO) said on Thursday, in a bid to attract investors to the longer maturity.

The yield rose to 15.25 percent at the auction held on Wednesday from 14.3 percent two weeks ago on the one-year note, fetching 80 billion naira.

The yield on the 3-month paper eased to 10.75 percent from 10.98 percent at the last auction on Feb. 3, fetching 32.43 billion naira, the agency said.

The yield on the 6-month paper fell to 13.70 percent from 13.9 percent previously. The paper fetched 30 billion naira.

Total demand at the auction fell to 254.33 billion naira, from 294.54 billion naira from the last auction.

The currency of Africa’s biggest economy – and the continent’s top oil producer – has lost more than 20 percent in the past three months as oil prices collapsed and concern grew among investors about political stability after the six-week postponement of the Feb. 14 elections.