While most Nigerians were slumbering away in deep sleep overnight, the financial and economic system was busy adjusting to the effects of the matured treasury bills the CBN paid off yesterday. The bank repaid about 138.7 billion Naira ($456 million) in matured treasury bills on Thursday to boost liquidity.
This led to the market being flush with cash after the central bank sold fewer dollars than expected and returned excess Naira, Kitco reports.
The effect of this was that the lending rates fell to 11 percent overnight , below the central bank’s benchmark 14 percent, from 15.5 percent on Thursday. This is in contrast to rates which had risen above 100 percent at the start of the week because of a central bank dollar auction.
The Nigerian government still plans to hold another $1 billion bond auction before the end of the year.
