CBN to borrow N1.07tn via treasury bills in Q2

The Central Bank of Nigeria is planning to borrow N1.07tn via treasury bills issuance in the second quarter of 2016.

The CBN said it would auction N303.77bn worth of 91-day bills, N169.98bn worth of 182-day paper and N599.63bn of one-year paper between March 17 and June 2.

The Federal Government, through the CBN, had raised N1.22tn from treasury bills in the first quarter.

The Debt Management Office had on Wednesday said it would raise N100bn ($503.02m) in local currency denominated bonds with maturities ranging between five and 20 years on March 16.

The debt office said it would raise N40bn at par in the local bond maturing in 2036; N40bn of the paper maturing in 2026 and N20bn of the debt maturing in 2020.

The 2026 and 2020 maturing notes are re-openings of previously issued paper, while the 2036 maturing note is a fresh issue.

The Director-General, DMO, Dr. Abraham Nwankwo, had said the slump in crude oil prices in the international market had made a deficit budget inevitable this year, adding that the DMO was prepared to borrow on behalf of the government to fund the deficit.

Nwankwo dismissed the fears in some quarters that the government might not be able to borrow from the bond market to finance any shortfall in the budget because of the recent delisting of Nigeria from the JPMorgan Bond Index.