According to the Debt Management Office (DMO)’s analysis of bond auction results, the Nigerian government borrowed N1.94 trillion from bond investors in the first quarter of 2025.
Nevertheless, the sum was raised over three months through Nigerian government bonds; it excludes borrowings made possible by the FGN savings bond scheme.
The sum is the total amount distributed to investors who bought FGN bonds in January, February, and March of 2025.
Strong investor demand drove overall subscriptions to N2.83 trillion, despite the government’s initial offering of N1.10 trillion in bonds during the quarter amounting to N1.94 trillion.
The government put N450 billion up for auction in January for three different instruments: the 5-year 19.30 per cent FGN APR 2029, the 7-year 18.50 per cent FGN FEB 2031, and the recently issued 10-year 22.60 per cent FGN JAN 2035 bond.
The government allocated N601.04 billion out of the N669.94 billion in bids from investors.
Since there was no non-competitive allocation in January, competitive bidding was used to obtain the full amount. After receiving N604.56 billion in subscriptions, the government proposed N360 billion in January 2024, of which N418.2 billion was ultimately allocated.
Divided between the 5-year and 7-year bonds, the government offered N350 billion by February 2025. The offer was greatly outstripped by the spike in demand to N1.63 trillion.
The DMO allocated N910.39 billion while remaining cautious in the face of the enormous demand. This was a decrease from February 2024, when the DMO allocated N1.495 trillion and auctioned N2.5 trillion in bonds. The busiest month was February 2024, when N1.90 trillion was subscribed and N2.5 trillion was offered. N1.495 trillion was distributed by the DMO among two bonds: the 10-year 19.00 per FGN FEB 2034 and the 7-year 18.50 per FGN FFG 2031.
Two bonds, a reopening of the 5-year 19.30 per cent FGN APR 2029 and a 9-year 19.89 per cent FGN MAY 2033, were offered for N300 billion in March 2025.
Government funding was N423.68 billion, while subscriptions totalled N530.31 billion. This included non-competitive allocations of N152.45 billion and competitive bids of N271.23 billion.
The substantial amount of non-competitive allocation in March indicates that institutional investors, including pension funds, who usually make investments during this window, are quite interested.
