By Babajide Komolafe

When the Federal government needs to borrow from the public for less than a year, it does so through treasury bills. A Treasury Bill is a document containing information such as the amount the government wants to borrow, the interest rate, and the repayment date (maturity or tenor). Treasury bills typically come in four tenors: 91 days (three months), 182 days (six months), 364 days, and 365 days (one year).

Treasury Bills are issued and sold by the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, on behalf of the Federal Government. But the Bills are sold through the banks who act as agents to the CBN.

When the CBN wants to sell TBs, it would place adverts in the newspapers to inform the public. The advert will contain the dates when the sale will start and when it will close.

The advert will also indicate the minimum amount that can be invested, which is usually N10,000. It will also direct interested members of the public to apply or bid through their banks.

There are two ways to invest in treasury bills, TBs.
The first way is to buy the freshly issued TBs from CBN through your bank.

Visit your bank, inform the staff you want to buy TBs. You will be asked to complete the bid/application form, in which you will indicate which of the TBs you are bidding for, namely; 90-Days or 180-Days.

You will also indicate the interest rate you want on your investment.
The bank will submit your bid and that of others to the CBN.

The CBN will allocate the TBs starting with the application with the lowest bid interest till the amount of TBs to be issued is exhausted. The interest rate of the last successful bid is called the ‘Stop Rate.’

This means that a bid with a very high interest rate has less chance of being successful. Your bank will inform you if your bid is successful and your money less the interest rate will be transferred to the CBN for onlending to the Federal Government.

On the maturity day of TBs, the CBN will return your money (the principal) to your bank which then credits your account with the money.
The last auction of Nigeria Treasury Bills, NTB by the CBN was on July 23rd, 2025. During the auction the CBN offered N50 billion worth of 91-Days TBs.

Members of the public submitted bids for N41.67 billion. The interest rate demanded by the public ranged from 14% to 17.53%
However, the amount of bids that were successful (approved by the CBN) was N13.11 billion. Interest rate of the successful bids ranged from 14% to 15%.

This means bids with interest rates higher than 15% were unsuccessful.