The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) will retain foreign currency controls because of concerns about slowing growth, a senior bank official has said.
The apex bank also says it plans to raise N127.07 billion in treasury bills with maturities of three months to one year at an auction on October 7.
It said it will issue new 91-day paper worth N25.40 billion, N33.49 billion in 182-day bills and N68.18 billion in one-year debt, using the Dutch Auction System. Results of the auction are expected to be released the following day. Nigeria issues treasury bills twice-monthly to fund the government budget deficit and manage liquidity in the banking system.
Nigeria’s economic growth was 2.35 per cent in the second quarter year on year, compared with 6.54 in the same quarter last year. “We are concerned that we are having declining growth,” CBN’s monetary policy director, Moses Tule, was quoted by Reuters as saying.
Meanwhile, the Debt Management Office (DMO) plans to re-issue its five- and 10-year bonds in the last quarter of the year to raise up to N270 billion after JP Morgan’s index delisted half of the maturities belonging to Nigeria’s economy.
The 10-year bond, among those to be delisted on the influential index, edged higher to yield 15.09 per cent after the DMO released its calendar showing it will re-introduce the benchmark paper, which was not issued in the third quarter.
