Investors just parked N4.7 trillion with the CBN in one week. Here is why

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) extended its aggressive liquidity sterilisation campaign into the final week of June 2026, absorbing approximately N4.74 trillion across three Open Market Operations (OMO) auctions conducted on June 22 and June 23.

CBN’s financial data, analysed by Nairametrics, showed that combined subscriptions across the auction dates stood at approximately N4.8 trillion against a total offer of N1.2 trillion, representing an oversubscription rate of four times or 300% of the amount placed on offer.

The CBN accepted approximately all the N4.7 trillion in successful bids — significantly above the combined N1.2 trillion offer, with only N72.81 billion in bids rejected across all three instruments.

The week’s operations follow a trend of increasing liquidity withdrawal that started right from the beginning of June 2026 in a radical effort to contain anticipated liquidity surge of about N10.90 trillion in June, according to FMDA.

What the data is saying:

A breakdown of the June 22 and June 23 OMO auction results reveals exceptionally strong investor appetite, particularly for longer-dated instruments as in previous auctions, with the 134-day bill emerging as the most heavily demanded security across the four auctions.

June 22 — 99-day OMO Bill (Maturity: September 29, 2026)

• Offer: N300 billion
• Subscriptions: N658 billion (2.19x oversubscribed)
• Allotment: N658 billion (full subscription accepted)
• Successful bid range: 20.28% to 20.40%
• Stop rate: 20.40%

June 22 — 134-day OMO Bill (Maturity: November 3, 2026)

• Offer: N300 billion
• Subscriptions: N2.052 trillion (6.84x oversubscribed)
• Allotment: N2.016 trillion (98.26% of bids accepted)
• Successful bid range: 19.95% to 20.02%
• Stop rate: 20.02%
• Rejected bids: approximately N35.81 billion

June 23 — 70-day OMO Bill (Maturity: September 1, 2026)

• Offer: N300 billion
• Subscriptions: N538 billion (1.79x oversubscribed)
• Allotment: N538 billion (full subscription accepted)
• Successful bid range: 20.69% to 20.75%
• Stop rate: 20.75% — highest across all three instruments

June 23 — 140-day OMO Bill (Maturity: November 10, 2026)

• Offer: N300 billion
• Subscriptions: N1.562 trillion (5.21x oversubscribed)
• Allotment: N1.525 trillion
• Successful bid range: 19.93% to 19.99%
• Stop rate: 19.99% — lowest across all three instruments
• Rejected bids: approximately N37 billion

More insights:

The final week’s auctions reinforce several structural features of Nigeria’s fixed-income market that have become defining characteristics of 2026.

• The 140-day bill’s 5.21x oversubscription ratio — despite offering the lowest stop rate of 19.99% across all three instruments — is the week’s most telling data point.
• It confirms that institutional investors are prioritising duration and yield certainty over maximising marginal returns.
• The 134-day bill’s 6.84x oversubscription on June 22 — with N2.052 trillion in bids against a N300 billion offer and the CBN accepting N2.016 trillion or 6.72 times the offer size — represents the strongest oversubscription ratio of the final week.
• No previous OMO amount was repaid at that auction, making the entire N2.016 trillion a net liquidity withdrawal.
• The 70-day bill recorded the highest stop rate of 20.75% — reflecting the short-duration premium that investors demand for locking funds over a shorter horizon in an uncertain rate environment.
• The full N538 billion subscription was accepted with no bids rejected, suggesting the CBN was content to absorb all available short-tenor demand at market-clearing rates.

Stop rates across all four instruments ranged from 19.99% to 20.75%, maintaining the structural premium above the CBN’s Monetary Policy Rate and reinforcing the appeal of OMO bills as a risk-free, high-yield alternative to equity exposure — a dynamic that has contributed to the rotation from equities into fixed income observed across June’s trading sessions.

The scale of the final week’s operations also reflects the CBN’s strategy of extending the maturity profile of its OMO portfolio.

By concentrating allotments in the 134-day and 140-day instruments, the apex bank reduces the frequency and scale of near-term liquidity injections from OMO maturities, buying itself a longer runway before the next wave of system-wide liquidity re-enters the market in Q4.

What you should know:

The Financial Markets Dealers Association (FMDA) had projected total inflows of approximately N10.90 trillion into the banking system during June 2026, of which approximately N7.77 trillion was expected from maturing OMO bills alone.

The CBN has increased the pace of its June mop-up operations from the beginning of the month, mopping up N6.88 trillion in the first two weeks of June.

• The sum of N3.04 trillion was absorbed in the first week of June.
• Another N1.69 trillion was drained on June 8.
• Approximately N4.74 trillion has been absorbed in the final week as of June 23.

Thus, a substantial proportion of the projected N10.90 trillion inflows has been recycled back out of the system.

• Cumulative OMO sales between January and April 2026 had already reached approximately N30.12 trillion, reflecting an unprecedented pace of liquidity management by the apex bank.

The CBN’s acceptance of significantly more than its stated offer size across multiple June auctions suggests that the apex bank is using the oversubscription headroom to maximise liquidity absorption at each session.

• Despite the scale of sterilisation — a pattern visible in the first week’s N3.04 trillion allotment against a N600 billion offer and the final week’s N2.721 trillion against a N900 billion offer — excess liquidity remains a defining feature of Nigeria’s banking system.

The June OMO auction cycle has confirmed that high yields of about 20% on short-to-medium-tenor fixed income naira instruments, a fact that continues to intensify competition for capital between OMO bills and the equities market, and which analysts have highlighted as a key driver of the NGX’s June correction.