The Nigerian debt capital market recorded a major surge in investor demand on February 4, 2026, as subscriptions for Nigerian Treasury Bills (NTBs) at the Primary Market Auction (PMA) soared to N4.59 trillion.
This represents an oversubscription of nearly four times the N1.15 trillion offered by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), highlighting strong appetite for high-yield fixed-income instruments.
Ayodeji Ebo, Managing Director of Optimus by Afrinvest, attributed the massive demand to tight liquidity management and investors’ desire to lock in yields above 20 percent while they remain available. He noted that the figure exceeded the N3.4 trillion recorded at the previous auction and is the highest since December 4, 2024, when subscriptions crossed N5 trillion during peak inflation and high-interest-rate conditions.
Market participation in the Treasury bill segment has continued to strengthen, with primary auction subscriptions consistently trending above N1 trillion since December 2025. Analysts at Meristem also linked the increased activity to investors positioning themselves to benefit from rising interest rates.
Auction results showed a clear flight to yield, with investors favouring longer-dated instruments despite a slight dip in interest rates for those maturities. The 364-day bill dominated demand, attracting N4.39 trillion in subscriptions against an N800 billion offer, with the CBN allotting N808.78 billion.
The 182-day tenor recorded bids of N123.41 billion for a N200 billion offer, with N80.61 billion allotted, while the 91-day bill attracted N66.05 billion in subscriptions against a N150 billion offer, resulting in an allotment of N63.21 billion.
Fahad Ali, a bond trader at UBA, explained that the oversubscription was driven by excess liquidity in the system, largely from coupon payments on maturing T-bills and OMO bills. Nigeria’s financial system is expected to receive about N8.61 trillion in liquidity in February 2026 from maturities of Open Market Operations (OMO), Treasury bills, and government bond coupon payments.
Despite the strong demand for the one-year paper, its stop rate declined by 1.48 percent to 16.98 percent, although the true yield remained robust at 20.46 percent. Shorter tenors recorded marginal increases, with the 91-day and 182-day stop rates rising to 15.84 percent and 16.65 percent, respectively.
Ebo noted that the trend is likely to spill into the broader fixed-income market, influencing the pricing of commercial papers and money market instruments. He added that longer-dated Treasury bills still offer the most attractive value for investors seeking to lock in high returns.
Retail investors, he said, can also benefit from rising yields through secondary market participation via banks and digital investment platforms such as Risevest, Cowrywise, Bamboo, Meritrade, and I-invest.
