CBN raises N1.457 trillion at June-3 NTB auction at higher rates across tenors

The CBN raised N1.457 trillion at its June 3 Treasury bills primary market auction, hiking stop rates across all tenors despite heavy demand attracting N2.160 trillion in subscriptions, more than double the offer size of N1 trillion.

….As 364-day bill draws N1.95 trillion demand

The 364-day bill alone attracted subscriptions of N1.946 trillion against an N800 billion offer.

This is according to the official NTB auction results published by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and obtained by Nairametrics on Wednesday, June 3.

The CBN, on behalf of the Debt Management Office (DMO) offered N100 billion each on the 91-day and 182-day bills, and N800 billion on the 364-day bill, with allotment dates set for Thursday, June 4, 2026, while maturity dates fall on September 3, December 3, and June 3, 2027 respectively.

Stop rates rose across all three instruments compared with the previous auction, with the 91-day clearing at 16.05%, the 182-day at 16.19%, and the 364-day at 16.35% — increments of 10 basis points, 5 basis points, and 20.1 basis points respectively.

The auction result arrives as Nigerian banking system liquidity enters what the Financial Markets Dealers Association (FMDA) projects will be one of its most heavily loaded monthly inflow cycles of 2026, with approximately N10.90 trillion in total inflows expected in June — of which N7.77 trillion will come from maturing OMO bills alone.

Against that backdrop, the June 3 NTB auction served as the first significant liquidity management event of the new month, absorbing N1.457 trillion from a system that ended May with N5.89 trillion parked overnight with the CBN through the Standing Deposit Facility.

A breakdown of the June 3, 2026, NTB auction results across all three tenor instruments reveals the apex bank accepted all 91-day subscriptions and partially allotted on the 182-day and 364-day instruments. Aggregate auction summary shows:

A further breakdown of the auction results across all three maturities shows:

The data indicates investor’s appetite for the risk-free government paper remains exceptionally strong, particularly at the longer end of the tenor curve, driven by institutional investors seeking to lock in yield over a 12-month horizon.

The upward movement in stop rates across all three tenors — albeit modest — is consistent with the broader interest rate environment in Nigeria.

Thus, CBN sustains the structural spread between NTBs and OMO instruments, a pattern that has characterised Nigeria’s fixed-income market throughout 2026.

The June 3 NTB auction must be viewed in the context of the N10.90 trillion in liquidity inflows projected for June 2026 by the FMDA, of which N7.77 trillion is expected from OMO maturities, the largest single-instrument inflow source.

For investors with a one-year investment horizon and no need for near-term liquidity, the June 3 auction represented one of the most competitive NTB pricing sessions of 2026 — with stop rates rising on all three tenors for the second consecutive auction cycle.