Nigeria raises N748.6bn from FGN bonds as rates ease

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The Federal Government raised N748.64bn from its September 2026 domestic bond auction, with investors showing strong demand for both the newly issued 10-year instrument and the reopened 15-year bond.

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The Debt Management Office allotted N288.83bn from the N400bn offered on the 10-year FGN bond at a marginal rate of 16.79 per cent.

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Investors submitted bids worth N546.90bn for the 10-year paper, pushing demand 36.7 per cent above the amount offered.

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The stronger demand for the new 10-year instrument came alongside a moderation in the yield compared with recent borrowing levels, suggesting some improvement in investor appetite for longer-dated government securities.

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For the 15-year FGN bond, which was offered as a N600bn reopening, investors submitted N947.83bn in bids.

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The DMO allotted N460.01bn from the reopening at a marginal rate of 16.85 per cent, significantly below the 17.79 per cent rate recorded at the previous auction.

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Overall, investors sought N1.49tn across the two securities, representing about 49.5 per cent more than the N1tn offered by the DMO.

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However, the debt office allotted N748.64bn, leaving about N746.59bn of the bids unaccepted.

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The auction results indicate that while demand for Nigerian government securities remained strong, the DMO was selective in determining the volume of debt to issue.

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The decline in the marginal rate on the 15-year bond also points to a gradual easing in investors’ required returns on longer-term government debt, although borrowing costs remain elevated.

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The latest auction comes as the Federal Government continues to rely heavily on the domestic debt market to finance its fiscal requirements and manage its debt portfolio.

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The outcome of the auction will also be closely watched by investors in the secondary bond market, where movements in government bond yields influence pricing across fixed-income assets, including treasury bills, corporate bonds and other debt instruments.

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