Rates to trade flat on T-Bills, OMO maturities

There are indications that the money market rates will continue to trade flat despite about N424.9 billion inflows, as the apex bank sustains its liquidity mop up through Open Market Operation (OMO) sales.

Dealers said OMO maturities of N244.0 billion and Treasury Bills worth N180.9 billion are expected to hit the system.

Similarly, Treasury bills worth N1.05 trillion would be auctioned to investors via the primary market in the third quarter of 2018.

The exercise would be conducted by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on behalf of the Nigerian government.

In the calendar for the T-bills sale for Q3 2018 released last week, the apex bank said it would conduct two Primary Market Auctions (PMAs)  each month except in August, where three Primary PMAs would be carried out.

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It further noted that a total of N44.9 billion of the 91-day bills would be sold to market players during the period under review, while N225.1 billion of the 182-day instrument would be auctioned.

Also during the period, N782.5 billion worth of the 364-day would be offered to investors by the apex bank.

Treasury bills are short-term debt instruments issued by the Federal Government through the Central Bank to provide short term funding for the government. They are sold at a discount and redeemed at par.

To buy treasury bills from the primary market, investors have to approach their banks requesting for a form.