Nigeria attracted six times more cash than it planned to raise from the sale of one-year Treasury Bills on Wednesday despite a liquidity squeeze that muted the interest of local banks.Investors staked a total of N725 billion on the one-year bill versus the N122 billion that was offered. Nigeria eventually sold N334 billion at a yield of 26.1 percent, the same interest rate as the last auction.

The oversubscription of the one-year treasury bill was despite the liquidity squeeze in the market. Total subscriptions at the auction was N757 billion, the lowest level this year.“The banks are not so buoyant in terms of liquidity and couldn’t pull their weight in the auction, that’s why subscription levels were low compared to the previous auctions and CBN had to maintain elevated yields,” Oladipo Samuel, portfolio manager at Lead Asset Management Limited, an asset management company.Over double of the N7.8 billion offered in the 91-day bill was demanded, and N16.5 billion sold.