CBN offers N2 trillion OMO bills as banks hold N6 trillion at deposit window

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is offering N2 trillion in Open Market Operations (OMO) bills on Thursday, October 22, 2026, as banking system liquidity remains elevated following substantial securities repayments.

According to the CBN’s auction notice, the offer comprises N1 trillion each of 138-day and 180-day bills, with bidding scheduled between 1:00 p.m. and 1:30 p.m today.

The auction comes after banks’ net placements at the CBN’s Standing Deposit Facility exceeded N6 trillion earlier in October, while the Financial Markets Dealers Association (FMDA) projected N2.067 trillion in OMO maturities for the week.

The CBN’s latest OMO auction offers two maturities, with equal amounts allocated to the 138-day and 180-day instruments. The shorter bill matures on March 9, 2027, while the longer bill matures on April 20, 2027.

The N2 trillion offer represents approximately 96.8% of the N2.067 trillion in OMO maturities projected by FMDA for the week beginning October 19.

It also does not specify stop rates, subscriptions or allotments, which will only become known when the auction results are available.

Consequently, the amount of liquidity withdrawn will depend on the volume of bills eventually allotted rather than the announced offer alone.

The auction follows a period of substantial liquidity releases from maturing OMO securities. Banks’ net placements at the CBN’s Standing Deposit Facility rose above N6 trillion after an OMO repayment of approximately N2.41 trillion on October 13.

According to Nairametrics’ analysis of CBN data, those placements remained above N6 trillion through October 16.

Stop rates settled at 17.22% for the 147-day bill and 16.92% for the 182-day bill, both below the rates recorded at the September 29 auction.

The CBN also sold approximately N17.51 trillion in OMO bills during September against N10.89 trillion in maturities, representing a net liquidity withdrawal of about N6.62 trillion.

The October 22 auction will provide another indication of how aggressively the CBN intends to absorb liquidity from the banking system. Although the offer is N2 trillion, recent auctions show that the final allotment can be substantially higher.

The results will also indicate whether investors continue to favour longer-dated OMO instruments and whether accepted yields maintain their recent downward trend.

A larger allotment could absorb more liquidity than the projected weekly maturities, while a smaller allotment could leave more funds within the banking system. The final subscription figures, stop rates and allotment volumes will therefore determine whether the auction mainly offsets maturing securities or results in an additional net liquidity withdrawal.

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