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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.